


tRN. ANTIQUITIES: 




::C)MPRISING SKETCHES 
3F EARLY BUFFALO AND 
r- n-REAT LAKES, ALSO 
xSolGHES OF ALASKA 



IP 



''" SEP 23 188b 




LIBRARY OF CONGRESS. 



Cliapi.:.,..! Copyright No 
Slielf...^5A? 



• 



UNITED STATES OF AMERICA. 



Modern Antiquities: 

Comprising 

Sketches of Early Buffalo 
and the Great Lakes 



Also Sketches of Alaska 



By Barton Atkins 



The Courier Company, Printers and Binders 

Buffalo, New York 

i8g8 



14316 

EXPLANATION. 



2 



■^ / 



A 9 



This writing is in manner provincial. 
Literary merit is not essayed, and for 
its demerits no apology is offered. 




0(^VRIGHTED, 1898, 

2nCI '--/0»*T_ By Barton Atkins. 

1896. 



N^ 



MODERN ANTIQUITIES 



CHAPTER I. 



At the burning of Buffalo in 1813 its earlier rec- 
ords were destroyed. From recollections of early res- 
idents, and from letters of early travelers, written 
hence, were constructed a history of the early trading- 
post and the subsequent village of New Amsterdam. 

The immediate ancestors of the writer were early 
residents of the locality, and of its legendary lore he 
was invested with a liberal share, which, together with 
the- records of the reconstructed village of Buffalo, 
form a basis for the claim that such history as is herein 
presented is the truth of it. 

About the year 1790 is the date when came the first 
white settler, and who erected the first building where 
now is the populous city of Buffalo. The historic 
pioneer was a Hollander and an Indian trader, named 
Cornelius Winne, from Fishkill on the Hudson. Thus, 
in reality, it was the Hollander, Winne, and not Elli- 
cott, the agent of Hollanders, who was the founder 
of Buffalo. 



b MODERN ANTIQUITIES. 

The commercial importance of Winne's domain was 
of slow growth during the remainder of the century. 
In 1791 Col. Thomas Proctor, an emissary of the Sec- 
retary of War, came to Western New York to treat 
with the Seneca Indians, and at the trading-post he 
found Winne, and a negro, called "Black Joe," the 
only signs of civilization. 

Four years later, in 1795, Capt. Daniel Dobbins 
journeyed from the "Genesee Country" to Presque 
Isle (Erie), and at the mouth of Buffalo Creek he 
rested for a day with Winne and Black Joe, who were 
then partners in trade with the Indians. Cajitain Dob- 
bins found the population of Winne's colony doubled, 
by the addition of Johnston, the British interpreter, 
and the Dutchman, Middaugh. Capt. Daniel Dobbins 
was not only an early pioneer among savage life, but 
a fighting patriot as well. Prior to the war of 1812 
he was sailing the waters of Lake Erie, master of the 
schooner Scdina^ and when war came was prompt to 
join the navy, and in the battle of Lake Erie was com- 
mander of the Oliio^ one of Perry's fighting fleet. All 
honor to the memory of Capt. Daniel Dobbins I 

Three years subsequent to the visit of Captain Dob- 
bins, in 1798, Albert Brisbane visited the trading- 
post "Lake Erie," and found its population further 
increased. " There were five or six log-houses. In one 
John Palmer kept a tavern, in one lived Asa Ransom 
and family, in another James Robbins, a blacksmith, 
and in a double house lived Johnston, the interpreter, 



SKETCHES OF EARLY BUFFALO. 7 

and Middaugh, with liis son-in-law, a man named 
Ezekiah Lane, who was a cooper." Middaugh had 
squatted over the creek, about opposite the present 
foot of Main street, where he lived an Indian trader 
until his death, in 1825. Lane was a resident in 
Buffalo until his death, in 1865 — a centenarian. 

Mr. Brisbane found that Winne and Black Joe had 
sought other pastures — Winne in Canada, and Joe on 
the Cattaraugus reservation, where he lived many 
years, dying at an advanced age. Joe Hodge had 
lived among the Indians a long time, spoke their lan- 
guage fluently, and had an Indian family. Was said 
to have escaped from slavery when a boy, and took 
refuge with the Senecas. 

In the year 1800, dating from Fort Niagara, Rev. 
Elkanah Holmes, a missionary from New York, wrote 
to his principals as follows: 

I then took leave of liim (Farmer's Brother) and went to a 
village of white people at the mouth of the Buffaloe. While 
there, where I made my home during- my visit to the Senecas, I 
preached to the whites seven or eight times. They never had 
but one sermon preached there before. 

Historians date Mr. Holmes' first appearance in 
Western New York in 1801, and to him they give 
credit of preaching the first sermon in Buffalo, It 
appears authoritively that he was there in 1800, and 
preached seven or eight times, and that there was one 
sermon preached there before his. Mr. Holmes did 
not name the preacher of the first sermon, an omission 



8 MODERN ANTIQUITIES. 

fatal to a complete record of the preaching of the 
Gospel in Buffalo. 

The letter here quoted, together with a speech made 
to Mr. Holmes by Farmer's Brother, and another by 
Red Jacket, the chief Sachems of the Seneca Nation, 
were published in the Kew York Missionary Magazine 
of December, 1800. Herein is the first republication 
of the letter and speeches.* 

At this time Mr. Holmes found five or six families 
at the trading-post, but does not mention any names. 
He went to New York in the fall of 1800, but re- 
turned the following year a missionary to the Senecas, 
remaining with them on the Buffalo Creek Reservation 
until 1812. 

In tlie meantime the title to the lands adjacent to 
Lake Erie became vested in the Holland Land Com- 
pany, and in 1799, their agent, Joseph Ellicott, ap- 
peared on the scene with a corps of surveyors, and in 
the following year he mapped a town site which he 
named New Amsterdam. The elioible location of the 
town site drew hither many prospectors, and the town 
increased in population rapidly. 

The first mechanics, other than jack-knife carpenters, 
to ply their trades in the town, were James Robbins, 
the blacksmith, and Ezekiel Lane, the cooper. The 
first tavern was opened by one Skinner, in 1794. He 
is spoken of by travelers before Palmer, who probably 

* See Appendix. 



SKETCHES OF EARLY BUFFALO. 9 

succeeded Skinner. The first civil official was Asa 
Ransom, who was appointed justice of the peace by 
Governor George Clinton, in 1801. 

And with the coming of a court of justice occurred 
the first murder in the town. An Indian, called Stiff- 
Arm George, stabbed to death John Hewett, in front 
of Palmer's tavern. The murderer was arrested and 
tried at Canandaigua. In his defense Red Jacket 
addressed the jury, citing cases of white men killing 
Indians and not punished therefor, as a reason for the 
discharge of the prisoner. The culprit was convicted, 
however, and subsequently pardoned by the Governor 
on condition that he leave and remain without the 
state, a condition faithfully complied with. The in- 
dustry of hanging Indians in Buffalo was not ripe at 
that early period. 

In 1803, David Reese, a blacksmith, came to the 
Senecas, making their knives and hoes, repairing their 
guns, etc. For Red Jacket he made a tomahawk, which 
was unsatisfactory to the big Indian, he casting it on 
the ground with the utterance, "No good." Then 
Reese was furnished with a pattern of a weapon desired 
by Red Jacket, and, when making, Reepe was admon- 
ished to strictly follow the model, which instruction 
was rigidly observed, and the illustrious savage had a 
tomahawk without a hole therein for a handle, and this 
is why he ever after called Reese " Damfool." Reese's 
shop stood on the northeast corner of Washington and 
Seneca streets, a frame building painted red, one of 



10 MODERN ANTIQUITIES. 

three not burned by the British, and where the bodies 
of the slain villagers were gathered and prepared for 
burial. The little red shop continued to adorn that 
now picturesque corner until about 1820. 

A school-house was erected in 1803 — a house of 
hewed timber — on Cayuga street (Pearl), west side, 
below Swan. 

The first physician to locate in New Amsterdam was 
Dr. Cyrenius Chapin, and there he continued to reside 
until his death, in 1838. Dr. Chapin was active on 
the frontier during the war of 1812, and valorous in 
defense of Buffalo in troublous times. He is recalled 
as a tall, spare and gray-visaged man, wrapped in a 
long cloak of blue cloth. 

As Indian Agent, Judge Erastus Granger called 
Dr. Chapin to attend Red Jacket in his illness. The 
original bill presented to Judge Granger for this ser- 
vice is possessed by the writer, dated December, 1806. 

The bill of Dr. Chapin reads as follows : 
Erastus Granger, Esq., Dr. 

To Cyrenius Chapin. 

For medical attention, and for med. delivered to Red Jacket, 
Nov. 5, 1806 : 

Two Emetics, 4s. 

Croton Oil Pills, 6s. 

Sol, Tartar Emetic, 3s. 

Spice and Opium Plaster, 4s. 

Pills of Croton Oil, Is. 

£0.18.0 



SKETCHES OF EARLY BUFFALO. 11 

Item Second. 

19-Call, 2s. 

Cathartic, 2s. 

Sol. of Giauber-salts, 3s. 

Emetic of Powdered Ipecac, 4s. 

Pills of Croton Oil, 8s. 

£0.19s.O 

£l.lTs.O 
Received Payment, Buffalo Creek, 

Dec'r Uth, 1806. Signed duplicates, 

Eben'r Walden. Cyrenius Chapin. 

Some of the doses thus prescribed have been known 
to kill a horse, but Red Jacket survived the treatment 
twenty-four years, a pleasing assurance that his monu- 
ment in Forest Lawn was not erected in vain. 

The first regular mail came from Canandaigua on 
horseback, in 1804. Then a post-office was established, 
and Erastus Granger appointed postmaster. 

The first lot devoted to burial purpose in the settle- 
ment was the one now the northeast corner of Washing- 
ton and Exchange streets. There interments were made 
until the "Village Burial Ground" was established— 
where now is the City and County Hall— in 1808. The 
first interment in the village ground was the body of a 
stranger, who died suddenly at Barker's tavern, formerly 
Pomeroy's. No lots were sold in the village plot ; burial 
permits were granted by the trustees. 



12 MODERN ANTIQUITIES. 

In 1815, the famous Seneca chief, Farmer's Brother, 
was buried there with military honors. In later life this 
native warrior was friendly and loyal to the whites, and 
to the Government of the United States. In earlier life 
he led the war party which committed the ghastly 
massacre of Britons at Devil's Hole, on the Niagara. 

At the commencement of the war of ■ 1812, the 
schooner Connecticut^ an American vessel, when an- 
chored off the mouth of Buffalo Creek, was captured 
by a British party from Fort Erie, the first hostile act 
of the war on the frontier. Soon thereafter two Brit- 
ish vessels were anchored near shore, under the guns 
of Fort Erie. Lieutenant Elliott, of the navy, then at 
Buffalo, organized an expedition to cut out the Brit- 
ishers under cover of night, and his success was com- 
plete, for which Congress voted that heroic officer a 
sword. Subsequently Elliott admitted that the saga- 
cious Farmer's Brother pointed out to him the feasi- 
bility of his ex2)edition to capture the British vessels, 
one of which had a valuable cargo of furs, brought 
down from Lake Huron. 

Interments continued in the village plot until 183 6 j 
the wife of Judge Samuel Wilkeson being the last 
one, excepting the body of Dr. Cyrenius Chapin, which 
was buried there by special permit, in 1838. Dr. Cha- 
pin's grave was directly beneath the present Church 
street entrance to the city hall. The remains of those 
interred in the old village ground were removed to an 
inclosed plot in Forest Lawn, in 1850. 



SKETCHES OF EARLY BUFFALO. 13 

David Mather was a settler in New Amsterdam in 
1806. Then the hamlet consisted of sixteen houses, 
eight of which were on Main street, three on Seneca, 
two on Pearl, and three on the Terrace. There were 
two stores, one on the southeast corner of Main and 
Seneca streets, kept by Vincent Grant, and the store 
of Samuel Pratt, on Crow street (Exchange), which 
then extended only from Main to Washington street. 
In a wing of his dwelling, corner of Main and Crow 
streets, Louis Le Couteulx had a drug store, the first 
in Buffalo. Where now is the Mansion House, John 
Crow kept a tavern. 

The first lawyer to locate in New Amsterdam was 
Ebenezer Walden, in 1806. And in 1811 Mrs. Wal- 
den presided at the first piano sounded in Buffalo. 

The first judge for Buffalo was Samuel Tupper, 
appointed in 1805 by Gov. George Clinton. Judge 
Tupper resided on the southwest corner of Main and 
Tu^jper streets. His dwelling was destroyed in the 
burning of the village in 1813. After the war he 
erected a larger house on the site, where it remained 
until removed to the west side of Main street, below 
Allen, and where it still stands, a relic of village days. 

The first street passenger line in Buffalo was estab- 
lished by Moses Baker, in 1825 — a line of stages to 
and from Black Rock. 



14 MODERN ANTIQUITIES. 



CHAPTER IL 



The preceding chapter relates to the coming of the 
first white settler to "Buffalo Creek," and the estab- 
lishment of the trading-post, "Lake Erie," and of the 
subsequent village of " New Amsterdam," and of events 
there occurring down to the year 1807. At that period 
the settlers of the place persisted in calling it Buffalo, 
in accord with the official name of its post-office and 
the customs district. But not until 1826 were the 
Dutch appellations of the streets officially renounced 
and the present names substituted. 

In 1808 an act of the legislature made Buffalo the 
county seat of Niagara County, the Holland Company 
donating lots, on which were erected a court-house and 
jail. The court-house, a wooden structure, was located 
on the present line of Washington street, directly 
fronting the present Public Library building. The 
jail was built of stone, and stood where now is the 
old Darrow block, on Washington street, opposite 
the Mooney-Brisbane building. These improvements 
added prestige to the town; settlers came, and its 
advance was rapid. 

The first court of record was held in 1808, at Lan- 
don's tavern, Augustus Porter, Judge, William Stew- 



SKETCHES OF EARLY BUFFALO. 15 

art, District Attorney, Louis Le Couteulx, Clerk, and 
Asa Ransom, Sheriff. Upon this court were four at- 
tendant lawyers, Ebenezer Walden, John Root and 
Jonas Harrison, of Buffalo, and Bates Cook, of Lew- 
iston. The records of the court went the way of all 
other records of early Buffalo — up in smoke in the 
conflagration of 1813, but in some manner it has been 
preserved to history that at this s9ssion four men were 
indicted and tried for stealing a cow ! 

The first brick building erected in the town of Buf- 
falo was by William Hodge, Sen., in 1806, on the 
lot now 1358 Main street. The bricks for the build- 
ing were manufactured by Mr. Hodge on the lot now 
occupied by the Bapst building, corner of Main street 
and Glenwood avenue. The second brick structure 
in the town was erected on the lot now the north- 
east corner of Exchange and Washington streets, 
in 1810, by Benjamin Caryl, Juba Storrs and Samuel 
Pratt, Jr. 

The first newspaper for Buffalo was the Gazette^ 
published by Smith H. and Hezekiah Salisbury, in 
1811. Copies of this publication are preserved in the 
Buffalo Library. 

The first brewer known to Buffalo was Joseph 
Webb. In 1811 he advertised his brewery in the col- 
umns of the Gazette. 

In 1811 the first church organization in Buffalo 
was formed — " The First Congregational and Presby- 



16 



MODERN ANTIQUITIES. 



terian Church" — numbering twenty -nine members, 
as follows: 



James B. Hyde, 
Rusha Hyde, 
Samuel Atkins, 
Anna Atkins, 
John J. Seeley, 
Elizabeth Seeley, 
Stephen Franklin, 
Sarah Franklin, 
Amos Callender, 
Rebecca Callender, 
Nathaniel Sill, 
Keziah Sill, 
Comfort Landon, 
Esther Pratt, 
Sarah Hoisington. 



Jabez Goodell, 
Nancy Hull, 
Ruth Foster, 
Keziah Cotton, 
Nancy Mather, 
Keziah Holt, 
Sally Haddock, 
Sopiiia Bull, 
Henry Woodworth, 
Sophia Gillett, 
Betsy Atkins, 
Mary Hoi brook, 
Louis Curtiss, 
Nancy Harvey, 



For about four years the society retained its original 
title, when it was changed to ''The First Presbyterian 
Church Society," a name still retained. The vicissi- 
tudes of war interrupted their meetings for fully three 
years. The Rev. Thaddeus Osgood was their first 
pastor. In Ma-y, 1816, in a building on the northeast 
corner of Main and Huron streets, erected for a car^ 
penter shop, the Rev. Miles P. Squier was installed 
pastor. Their old church, which gave place to the Erie 
County Bank building, was erected in 1827. Its foun- 
dation stones were dug when constructing the canal at 
Porter avenue. 

The first butcher to open a meat market in Buffalo 
was Gilman Folsom, in 1808. His location was on 



SKETCHES OF EARLY BUFFALO. 17 

the lot since occupied for a like purpose for half a 
century by Arnold Weppner, on Main street, below 
Chippewa. Folsom's slaughter-house was in the rear, 
on Pearl street. 

In 1811 a war-cloud darkened the land. To frontier 
communities remote from the centers of population it 
was of much concern. When war came it brought 
appalling disaster to the village of Buffalo, its inhabi- 
tants being compelled to flee from the flames of their 
burning homes in mid-winter to seek shelter in adja- 
cent settlements. Their village, with the exception of 
three buildings, was burned to ashes. 

Recently was published in a local newspaper a con- 
servative account of the burning and of the events 
leading thereto, which is new reading. The article is 
hereto appended : 

The story of tlie burning of BufEalo eighty-three years ago 
has been told many times, but ahnost always from the point of 
view of the dwellers in the two villages where the city now 
stands. The men of BufEalo and Black Rock were defending 
their own firesides, and Buffalonians are apt to think of them 
and their families as the only sufEerers. It will be interesting 
to read the story as seen by those who rallied from the sur- 
rounding country to aid in defense of Buffalo when its destruc- 
tion was threatened. 

When General Wilkinson retired in 1813 to lower Lake On- 
tario, he left the force on the Niagara in command of General 
McClure, who made his headquarters on the Canadian side, at 
Fort George, where the doughty General issued flaming procla- 
mations, and when abandoning that position committed the need- 
less cruelty of burning the adjacent village, and turning helpless 
families out into winter's cold and snow. The inhuman act 



18 MODERN ANTIQUITIES. 

brouglit condign punishment on the American frontier. Then 
McClure moved his headquarters to Buffalo. The British, fired 
with the spirit of revenge, at once undertook reprisals. The 
whole country-side, up to Tonawanda Creek, was swept by red- 
coats and their savages. During the three weeks following the 
burning of Newark, six American villages were burned, with all 
the scattered homes the avengers could find. The whole country- 
side was a waste. General McClure called upon the men of 
Genesee, Niagara and Chautauqua counties to come to the defense 
of Buffalo, and then went to Batavia, where he arrived on De- 
cember 22d, and there he gave up the command to General Hall, 
who hurried on all the troops he could to Buffalo, which he 
reached December 25th, and did the best he could to repel the 
invaders. 

The tale has often been told how small detachments of Amer- 
ican raw militia were one after another thrown against the enemy 
in the darkness at Conjockety Creek, and were in turn demoral- 
ized, many scattering through the wood in flight ; how the Brit- 
ish succeeded in landing at Black Rock ; how the enemy marched 
up from the Conjockety, dispersing such resistance as they met. 
General Hall sounded a retreat, hoping to make a stand at Buf- 
falo, but this was impossible. Only a few soldiers rallied for a 
future defense. Then followed a scene which passes description. 
The few roads were thronged with a motley crowd of soldiers 
and citizens and Seneca Indians, all hurrying as fast as possible 
from the British and their savage allies. For a day or two the 
country roads resembled a general May-day moving, but with 
terror blanching every face. 

Such was the effect of the needless destruction of 
the Canadian village by General McClure on his evac- 
uation of Fort George, and who then and there dis- 
graced the uniform of an American soldier by so 
doing. What if the villagers were insulting to their 
invaders ? They were belligerents in time of war, and 



SKETCHES OF EARLY BUFFALO. 19 

their indignities should have been overlooked, and in- 
nocent women and children not subjected to inhuman 
treatment in order to appease the wrath of an officer 
in command. A true soldier would have shrunk from 
such action. 

Until the spring of 1814, but few of the fugitive 
villagers returned to re-establish their homes, and most 
of these with pluck only as a resource. The Gazette of 
May 14 announced that activity prevailed in rebuild- 
ing, and that the county clerk's office could be found 
at the house of Major Miller, at Cold Spring, that the 
post-office was at the house of Judge Granger, and that 
the collector's office had returned from Batavia. 

Samuel Wilkeson had returned from the army, and 
on Niagara, near Main street, he erected a house, and 
still another on Main, near Genesee street. The latter 
was his family residence until the completion of his 
mansion on Niagara Square, in 1825. 

This house, since construction, has been occupied 
continuously by the Wilkeson family. Miss Louise 
Wilkeson, a granddaughter of Judge Samuel Wil- 
keson, its present occupant, has there resided from 
her birth. The house is of much historic interest. 
Therein important meetings were held by prominent, 
influential citizens, when ways were discussed and 
means were provided to advance the interests of Buf- 
falo. There Gov. Dewitt Clinton and Canal Commis- 
sioner Myron Holly met in consultation with citizens 
of Buffalo on matters important, and which, promoted 



20 MODERN ANTIQUITIES. 

by the master mind of Judge Wilkeson, were consum- 
mated to the advantage and glory of Buffalo. On the 
opening of the Erie Canal, Judge Wilkeson was chair- 
man of the celebration committee, and on their return 
from their eastern trij) a grand reception was held at 
the Wilkeson house, where the returned committee was 
greeted and congratulated by the leading residents of 
Buffalo, and of the country surrounding. 

Robert Cameron Rogers, in his story, "Johnny 
Wedderburn," locates a scene at the Wilkeson man- 
sion, he naming it "Wedderburn House." The story 
is not drawn from family history, but his description 
of the house and grounds is perfect : 

But the uproar never seems to break in upon or dispel the air 
of complete repose \vhich surround the old mansion. The very 
dust appears to settle with a certain deference over the garden 
and through the branches of the elm trees, which stand like 
drowsj sentinels just within the yard. The Wedderburn House 
is like a half-hour stolen for meditation out of a busy day. It 
is a little Mecca in the midst of the work-a-day world, into ^yhich 
you may turn to meditate awhile on remote and quiet themes, 
and even, as the moslem leaves his shoes without the mosque, 
bid the questions and anxieties of life await you at the gate. 
Within the house is the same atmosphere of rest, tinged, you 
might say, with sadness. The shadow of some lingering sad- 
ness, softened and mellowed by time, seems mingled with the 
quiet of the dusky rooms. As you tread through the long hall, 
the soft, odd-patterned rugs hush the footfall into silence. The 
old-fashioned furniture meets your gaze, seeming to say softly, 
"We have been long in the family, and have memories." 

Together with its central location, and the historic 
interest connected with the house and grounds, their 



22 MODERN ANTIQUITIES. 

purchase and preservation by the city is a subject 
worthy of consideration. The result would be a joy 
to future generations, and a debt of honor canceled 
which Buffalo owes to the memory of Samuel Wilke- 
son, the father of the city — the founder of its com- 
mercial greatness. 

In the spring of 1813 the first execution in Buffalo 
took place. Two soldiers were shot for desertion, at 
the camp on Flint Hill. A like tragedy occurred the 
following year, when five soldiers were placed in kneel- 
ing posture to be shot for desertion, one of whom was 
a young man under twenty years of age. The mus- 
kets handed to the men ordered to fire at him were 
charged with blank cartridge, and his life was his own. 
This tragedy, overlooked by Generals Brown, Scott 
and Ripley, took place where is now the junction of 
Seventh and Carolina streets. 

The first execution by civil authority in Buffalo was 
in 1815, when James Peters and Charles Thompson 
were hanged for the murder of James Burba. The 
victim lived on the river-side, below Black Rock, and 
because he objected to the trespass upon his premises 
by Thompson and Peters, they shot him. On this 
occasion the gallows was erected on the Terrace near 
Swan street. 

In December, 1819, for the second time a gallows 
was erected in Buffalo. John Godfrey was hanged for 
killing a soldier in the garrison at Fort Niagara. The 
recruit was dilatory in obeying an order of Corporal 



SKETCHES OF EARLY BUFFALO. 23 

Godfrey, and thereupon he was promptly shot, and for 
which the corporal was promptly hanged, and then the 
scales of Justice balanced even. 

The first three years of the reconstruction of the vil- 
lage were uneventful, when important events stimulated 
the villagers to greater activity. The construction of 
the Erie Canal, then in progress, and the advent and 
success of a steamboat on Lake Erie, were incentives 
to emigration, and the ensuing decade was largely 
eventful to Buffalo. 

In 1813 an act incorporating the village was passed 
by the legislature, but the exigencies of war prevented 
organization. Another act of incorporation was passed 
in 1816, when an organization was effected, with Oliver 
Forward, Samuel Wilkeson, Charles Townsend, Eben- 
ezer Walden, Heman B. Potter and Jonas Harrison 
as trustees. 

A paper written in 1847, by the late Judge George 
W. Clinton, is an interesting chapter of village history, 
from which the following is extracted : 

On tlie 6tli day of May, 1816, the freeholders and inhabitants 
met at the house of Gains Kibbe, innkeeper. Of the trustees, 
Samuel Wilkeson, Oliver Forward, Charles Townsend and Jonas 
Harrison were present. The meeting chose J. E. Chaplin, 
Clerk, Josiah Trowbridge, Treasurer, Moses Baker, Collector, 
and Reuben B. Heacock, John Haddock and Caleb Russell, Fire 
Wardens. At a subsequent meeting, on the 11th of November, 
1816, they voted the first tax ever imposed in Buffalo village — a 
tax of $1,400, to be apportioned according to the assessment roll 
of the town of Buffalo for that year. 



24 MODERN ANTIQUITIES. 

On the 7th of March, 1817, the trustees organized 

a fire company, and appointed the following named 

to constitute it : 

Sylvanus Marvin, Horatio L. Fobes, 

Stephen K. Grosvenor, Joseph Lawton, 

William Murray, Jonathan R. Brown, 

Jonathan E. Chaplin, Azariah Fuller, Jr., 

Dan Bristol, William B. Goodrich, 

Gorham Chapin, Nathaniel Goodrich, 

John Fobes, William Dorrington, 

John B. Hicks, Welcome Wood. 

At this meeting the trustees passed a resolution, 
rather arbitrarily, "that it be the duty of Vincent 
Grant, Gilman Folsom and Amos Callender to jjrotect 
property from plunder whenever a fire takes place in 
this village." 

In May, 1823, was passed the first ordinance forbid- 
ing domestic animals the freedom of the town, bub the 
cows and pigs refused to observe the law for many 
years thereafter by roaming at will. 

On the 6th of August, 1825, Lorin Pierce was ap- 
pointed village sexton, an office he held persistently 
for fifty years thereafter. 

On December 16, 1824, the second fire company 
was organized. Among the members were : 

Guy H. Goodrich, Abner Bryant, 

Thaddeus Weed, Martin Daley, 

Ebenezer Johnson, John A. Lazelle, 

George Coit, George B. Gleason, 

John Scott, George B, Webster, 

William HoUister, Robert Bush, 

Nathaniel Wilgus, Joseph Dart, 

Theodore Coburn, E. D. Efner, 
Hiram Johnson. 



SKETCHES OF EARLY BUFFALO. 25 

111 August, 1831, a tax of |3,000 was imposed for 
the purpose of constructing reservoirs and the pur- 
chase of fire engines. Two thousand dollars was paid 
for a fire engine and 200 feet of hose. Then a third 
fire company was organized. Two engine houses were 
built and a third one ordered, and another fire engine 
contracted for. Such were the youthful days of 
Buffalo's now unsurpassed fire department. 

The police department was organized by a provis- 
ion of the city charter ; the village trustees neglecting 
such precaution further than to appoint a "watch," at 
the request of the residents of the "Triangle," sit- 
uated between Main and Canal streets and the canal. 
John Benson, Michael Benson and William Cornwall 
were appointed to guard that locality — Buffalo's first 
police authorized by the corporation. 

Not until near the close of the village era was Buf- 
falo furnished with a sidewalk other than what Mother 
Earth provided. An order to construct sidewalks on 
Main street, from Crow to Swan street, was ordered in 
1829, "with brick or smooth flagging," at the expense 
of the owners of fronting property — the west side to 
be sixteen feet in width, and but fourteen feet on 
the east side, and both sides provided with a rail on 
the outer edge. 

Prior to 1845, the east side of Main street be- 
low Seneca was of but little account. The east side, 
called "Cheapside," was "in the swim." As late as 
1846 the corner of Exchange and Main streets was 



26 MODERN ANTIQUITIES. 

occupied by the residence of Louis Le Couteulx, upon 
a hill ten feet above the present grade. The lot was 
inclosed by a stone wall, eight feet high above the side- 
walk. On the Main and Exchange street fronts there 
were openings in the wall, where steps led up to a gate 
at the top of the ground entrance to the house. From 
the corner of Exchange street half-way to Seneca street 
was vacant property. In 1843 William Garland came 
from Boston. Adjoining the Le Couteulx lot on the 
north he erected Gothic Hall, the building now occupied 
by that combustible merchant, Salem LeValley. Mr. 
Garland's enterprise was scoffed at by the merchants 
of "Gheapside" — that his building would be out of 
the line of business and travel. However, his fine 
structure was the incentive to the immediate improve- 
ment of that side of the street, above and below, when 
at once it became what it has ever since remained — the 
bustling side. 

During the Presidential campaign of 1844 the Whigs, 
in honor of their candidate, Henry Glay, erected on 
the upper corner of Main and Exchange streets a mas- 
sive ashen column, twenty feet high, surmounted by 
a golden ball, in circumference equal to a flour barrel. 

The first settlement of Buffalo was in the vicinity 
of the Terrace Liberty Pole. The double log-house 
of Middaugh and Lane, sold to Judge Barker in 1808, 
was the first exclusive dwellino: erected. No contracts 
for the sale of lands in New Amsterdam were entered 
into by the Holland Gomi^any until November, 1804, 



SKETCHES OF EARLY BUFFALO. 27 

when six were made on the first day. One of these 
was inner lot No. 1, to John Crow, who erected and 
kept a tavern upon it, and a public house has been 
maintained thereon continuously since, known as the 
Mansion House. In 1810, this lot, with its improve- 
ments, was sold to Joseph Landon for 1140. The 
census of 1810 gave the village a population of 355 
white inhabitants. 

The year 1816 gave to Buffalo four brick build- 
ings, two of which became famous — the court-house 
for its noted lawyers, and for its many noted criminal 
trials, among which were the convicted murderers, 
John Godfrey, the three Thayers, Dibdell Holt, John 
Davis, John Johnson, McEh'oy, Shorter, Knicker- 
bocker, and the acute Gaffney — all hanged, from Davis 
down, in the old jail yard. Holt was the victim of the 
last public execution in Buffalo. A noted trial in 
the old court-house was that of the illustrious forger, 
Benjamin Rathbun, in 1838. 

Once upon a time, Millard Fillmore, a respected 
Buffalo lawyer, who, with the rest of mankind, did not 
then suspect that he was destined to be President of 
the United States, addressed the jury in an important 
land case, tried before Judge Mullett in the old court- 
house. The close of Mr. Fillmore's address was an 
appeal to the jury, when he stated that "they all knew 
him, and therefore were aware that statements he had 
made to them were the facts of the case, else he would 
not have made them." Then Mr. Fillmore took a seat 



28 MODERN AXTIQ CITIES. 

next to the late Judge Talcott, then a la\^Ter at the 
bar. The opposing counsel, Gen. George P. Barker, 
then arose to make his address. General Barker 
opened his argument bj protesting against the emi- 
nent counsel for the plaintiffs making his personal 
character "the right bower of his argument."" Mr. 
Fillmore was curious : " Right bower — right bower — 
what's that?"" whispered the future President. '•Big- 
gest knave in the pack," said Talcott, and without a 
change of countenance. 

The Eagle Tavern acquired fame for good cheer, 
superior viands and entertainment. Among its guests, 
from time to time, have been Presidents of the nation. 
Governors, statesmen, and foreign potentates when 
making pilgrimages to the Falls. When the Ameri- 
can Hotel burned in 1865, the remaining portion of 
the old Eagle Tavern was destroyed, and on its site 
was erected the stores. 416 and 118 Main street. 

The first landlord of the Eagle Tavern was its con- 
structor. Gains Kibbe. In the early twenties Kibbe 
was succeeded by Benjamin Rathbun, who there flour- 
ished until the fall of 1836. Rathbun was succeeded 
by E. A. Huntley, and he for a time by I. R. Harring- 
ton, but its prestige had departed, overshadowed by 
the adjoining American Hotel. 

A third structure was the residence of Judge 
AYalden, located on Main street, where now stands 
the south end of J. N. Adam's line of stores, between 
Eagle and Clinton streets. Mr. AValden disposed of 



SKETCHES OF EARLY BUFFALO. 29 

the property in 1823 to Bela D. Coe, the resident pro- 
prietor of the Albany and Bnffalo line of stages, who 
occupied the residence until about 1839, when W. A. 
Moseley took possession, until sold to the McArthurs, 
during the forties. The McArthurs added to the 
premises by inclosing the then vacant space to Eagle 
street. For many years thereafter it was "McAr- 
thurs' Garden," having a building within the inclosure 
for exhibitions, with stage and audience room. Here 
Gen. Tom Thumb was first exhibited in Buffalo by 
P. T. Barnum. Subsequently, in 1851, a panorama 
presented scenes on the Sacramento River where gold 
was being panned out ; the exhibitor spread the Cali- 
fornia fever when pointing to a locality on the canvas, 
and saying : " On that bar I worked six weeks, aver- 
aging a little over two hundred dollars a day." The 
corner below, where stands the Hotel Iroquois, was 
then vacant. Usually, in summer, a circus tent was 
pitched in this lot. It was here that Dan Rice, in 
1858, exhibited his educated mules for the first time 
in Buffalo. Then upon the corner was erected the 
St. James Hotel, opened by E. L. Hodges, and then 
the Young Men's Association purchased and occupied 
the property about 1865, and then the fated Richmond 
Hotel, and then — the big wigwam, the Iroquois. 



30 MODERN ANTIQUITIES. 



CHAPTER III. 



At this period, 1820, no water craft larger than a 
bateau could enter Buffalo Creek from the lake, and 
the construction of a harbor was the leading question 
considered by the villagers. For the extension of the 
Erie Canal to Buffalo a harbor was indispensable, and 
a harbor its people were determined to have. 

Application for a survey of the creek was made, 
and an act j^assed authorizing such a survey. A sur- 
vey was made, and then a public meeting appointed 
Charles Townsend a delegate to Albany to obtain 
legislative aid. The state would loan a sum of money 
to be applied to building a harbor at Buffalo provided 
security was furnished. Oliver Forward, Charles 
Townsend, A. H. Tracy, H. B. Potter, E. F. Norton, 
Ebenezer Johnson, Ebenezer Walden, Jonas Harrison 
and John G. Camp associated and applied for a loan. 
An act was passed authorizing a loan to above-named 
citizens of Buffalo to the amount of #12,000, to be 
secured by bond and mortgage in double the amount. 
But the outcome was that all but Charles Townsend 
and Oliver Forward declined to bond themselves. 
Then the prospect of Buffalo village becoming a com- 
mercial city was cast in gloom. The termination of 
the canal at Black Rock was influentially advocated, 



EARLY NAVIGATION. 31 

and the practicability, even the possibility, of con- 
structing a permanent structure at the mouth of 
Buffalo Creek was seriously questioned. At this junc- 
ture came forth a Moses, who opened the way through 
the wilderness. The benefactor was Judge Samuel 
Wilkeson, who, in connection with Judge Charles 
Townsend, Judge Oliver Forward and George Coit, 
gave the required security, each executing their indi- 
vidual bond and mortgage in the sum of 'f 6,000. They 
obtained -$12,000 from the state to be expended in 
making a harbor at Buffalo, the state reserving the 
right to take the work when completed and cancel the 
bonds, all dependent upon its stability. The building 
of a pier into the open lake was an experiment, — no 
such work had been attempted. An engineer for 
superintendent was imported from the sea-board, and 
the work commenced during the summer of 1821. 
Judge Wilkeson was prosecuting his private business. 
Judge Forward was a senator at Albany, while Judge 
Townsend, not in robust health, watched the action of 
the superintendent, making himself acquainted with 
his j^lans and management. After a time it became 
manifest that the imported expert was improvident, if 
not incompetent, that he was not an economist suf- 
ficient to complete the work with the money available. 
A consultation resulted in the discharge of the superin- 
tendent, and obtaining the consent of Judge Wilkeson 
to neglect his i3rivate affairs and assume the manage- 
ment of the work. 



32 MODERN ANTIQUITIES. 

The great energy of Judge Wilkeson was evinced 
in the accomplishment of the first day of his manage- 
ment, three cribs being constructed, placed and par- 
tially filled with stone. For the want of adequate 
means of excavation and other appliances the work 
was prosecuted under many difficulties ; incessant rain 
and rough water was a hindrance that could not be 
obviated, and during the month of September, when 
the cribs placed were filled with stone, the work was 
suspended for the season. 

In his writings Judge Wilkeson was generous with 
praises of his faithful assistants in habor work. Of 
Sloan and Olmstead, the stone boatmen, he writes 
interestingly : 

Those only who have experienced the clifRculties in making 
improvements in a new country with inadequate facilities, can 
appreciate the worth of such men. James Sloan was a salt boat- 
man on the Niagara river in 1807. During the war he was a lake 
sailor, was of the party who cut out the brig Adams from under 
the guns of Fort Erie, and was commander of the ammunition boat 
at the siege of that fort. He was industrious, faithful and honest. 

In after life Capt. James Sloan resided at Black 
Rock, engaged in boating on the Niagara, an honored 
citizen, until his death, about 1857. Most old citizens 
will recall his sturdy character and quiet demeanor. 

In his writing of Olmstead and his achievements, a 

heroic character and a thrilling incident are added to 

local annals : 

N. K. Olmstead was a man of unusual muscular power. The 
severe" labor he performed on harbor work, perhaps no man in the 



EARLY NAVIGATION. 33 

country could equal. • He lived in Buffalo wlien the village was 
burned by the British, and his home and property were destroyed. 
When peace was declared he declined to be a party to the con- 
tract, remaining alert to make reprisal while on the river. Man- 
aging to obtain a load of military supplies to transport from 
Chippewa to Fort Erie, which included two kegs of specie, he 
landed on the American shore and hid the money. He then left 
the frontier, but returned to Buffalo in 1819. When on harbor 
work he at times went to the Canada shore for boat-loads of stone, 
and on such an occasion was arrested and placed in a boat to be 
taken to Chippewa. The boat had a small skiff in tow, in which 
was a single paddle. When nearing Chippewa he leaped into the 
skiff, cut its fastening, and took to the rapid current, where his 
captors declined his pursuit. By extraordinary exertion he 
landed on Grass Island. Observing a boat putting out from Chip- 
pewa, he again braved the rapids, and managed to make Porter's 
mill-race. A less active and powerful man would have been 
swept over the falls. The next day he resumed harbor work. 

The question of the terminus of the Erie Canal was 
greatly agitating the community, when Oliver Forward 
was selected as the master mind to represent the inter- 
ests of Buffalo in the legislature, where he maintained 
a conspicuous position and accomplished the great ob- 
ject of his mission, favorable legislation for Buffalo. 

Judge Charles Townsend was one of those pioneers 
who will ever be remembered as identified with the 
settlement and progress of Buffalo, and who in an 
eminent degree contributed to create and advance its 
business and commercial interests. 

Judge Samuel Wilkeson is gratefully remembered 
and more generally known from his identification with 
the history and prosperity of Buffalo. He was an 



34 MODERN ANTIQUITIES. 

extraordinary man, of strong mind, great energy and 
perseverance, possessing great pnblic spirit and active 
enterprise. 

These men gave to Buffalo a harbor at a time oppor- 
tune. No harbor, no canal ; no canal, no city. The 
harbor of 1822 was the harbinger of commercial 
greatness, fabulous in proportions, and, in view of the 
grand results, the most important consummation in the 
world of commerce. 

The successful navigation of the Hudson and Dela- 
ware rivers by steam, led to its application for the 
navigation of Lake Erie. Early in the winter of 1817 
the following named persons associated to construct a 
steamboat for Lake Erie: Joseph B. Stuart, Nathan- 
iel Davis, Asa H. Curtis, Kalph Pratt, James Durant 
and John Meads, of Albany, and Robert McQueen, 
Samuel McCoon, Alexander McMuir and Noah Brown, 
of New York. Mr. McQueen, a machinist, built the 
engine, and Mr. Brown, a shipwright, constructed the 
hull. The engine was constructed in New York, and 
from Albany conveyed in wagons to the bank of the 
Niagara. The hull and boiler were built at Black 
Rock. Early in 1818 Mr. Brown laid the keel on the 
bank of the river, a short distance above the mouth of 
Conjockety Creek, in a ship-yard made historic by the 
building there of a portion of Commodore Perr^^'s 
fleet five years previous, with which he fought and 
won his historic victory on Lake Erie. There, on 
May 28, 1818, was launched a boat with dimensions as 



EARLY NAVIGATION. 35 

follows: Length, 135 feet; width, 32 feet; depth, 
8^ feet ; tonnage, 338 ; carrying mainsail, foresail and 
foretopmast staysail. On the 25th day of Angnst 
following, the steamboat Walk-'in-the- Water departed 
from Black Rock on her first passage over the tnrbu- 
lent waters of Lake Erie, bonnd for Erie, Grand 
River, Cleveland, Sandnsky and Detroit. Over this 
course the boat reached Detroit in 44 hours, develop- 
ing a speed of seven and one-half miles per hour. 
When the steamboat essayed to stem the current of 
the Niagara, a scene picturesque and humiliating must 
have been presented. Fancy a steamboat, in order to 
make progress, calling to its aid a team of oxen, and 
then struo'o^lino- at the end of a tow-line while the oxen 
on the beach were alike struggling under the incentive 
of an elongated ox-goad, and you have the picture ! 
Such was the inauguration of steam navigation on the 
Great Lakes eighty years ago. 

The elongated and hyphenated name of the original 
lake steamboat met unfavorable criticism, and the ori- 
gin thereof partakes of the romantic. In 1807, when 
Robert Fulton first steamed the Clermont up the Hud- 
son, an Indian, standing on the bank, gazing silently 
at the boat stemming the current unaided by sails, 
finally exclaimed, "Walks in the water ! " The den- 
izen of the forest saw the boat ascend the stream 
unaided by visible power — by none known to him. 
He saw the paddle-wheel revolve, and conceived that 
when a paddle struck the surface of the water a step 



36 MODERN ANTIQUITIES. 

forward was taken. A grand conception of an untu- 
tored mind I Of course the boat walked in the water ; 
what else? This intuitive estimate of the original 
steamboat sentimentally suggested a name for the first 
steam vessel on the lakes. But the unwieldy name 
met with adverse criticism, and was seldom applied — 
the boat having no compeer — "The Steamboat" being- 
considered quite significant, and which was her usual 
appellation. 

The steamboat continued to ply successfully between 
Black Rock and Detroit until November, 1821, when 
a violent storm of wind beached her a short distance 
above the mouth of Buffalo Creek. To the PTowina* 
lake commerce of the village the loss of the boat was 
a serious matter, happening at its very doors, yet the 
calamity received but slight consideration from the 
local newspajjer. As an exhibit of the progress of 
journalistic enterprise, the article devoted to the wreck- 
ing is interesting. Evidently the fate of passengers 
and crew was not considered of importance by the 
local writer. The following is his contribution : 

It is with regret tliat we liave to announce that "The Steam- 
boat" was beached about .one hundred rods above the mouth of 
Buffalo Creels, and is so badly damaged that she cannot be re- 
paired. The boat was heavily laden, and on her last trip for the 
season. We cannot learn whether she was insured or not. 

But for a subsequent publication of the details fur- 
nished by a passenger on board, posterity would have 
been dejjrived of a thrilling romance, the last voj^age 



EARLY NAVIGATION. 37 

of the Walk-in-the- Water. The narrative is pathetic, 
and unique in nautical description, reading as follows : 

On Wednesday, October 31st, at 4 o'clock p. m., " Tlie Steam- 
boat" left Black Rock on her regular trip to Detroit. The 
weather, though somewhat rainy, did not appear threatening. 
After proceeding a short distance up the lake she was struck by 
a severe squall, which continued to blow through the night with 
extreme severity. The lake became rough to a terrifying degree, 
and every wave seemed to threaten destruction to the boat and 
passengers. To proceed up the lake was impossible. To at- 
tempt to return to Black Rock amid the darkness and howling 
tempest would be certain destruction. She was then anchored, 
and for a time held fast. The casings in her cabins moved at 
every roll, and the creaking of her timbers was appalling. She 
commenced leaking, and her engine was devoted to the pumps, 
but the water increased to an alarming extent, and the wind in- 
creased to an alarming degree. The wind blew more violent as 
the night advanced, and it was discovered that she was dragging 
her anchors. The passengers were numerous, and many of them 
were ladies, whose fears and cries were truly heart-rending. In 
this scene of distress and danger, all the passengers feel the 
warmest gratitude to Captain Rogers for the prudence, coolness 
and intelligence with which he performed his duty. The boat 
was now at the mercy of the waves, until five o'clock in the 
morning, when she beached, and we all debarked. 

Buffalo, November 6, 1821. 

The advent of the steamboat on Lake Erie was thus 
announced by the local newspaper of Buffalo. Queer 
does it read at this period : 

The ladies and gentlemen of this village were yesterday grat- 
ified with an excursion on board the new and elegant steamboat 
Walk-in-the- Water, by the politeness of Dr. Stuart, one of the 
promoters. The boat left the bay, off Buffalo Creek, at 3 o'clock 
p. M., and proceeded off Point Abino, and returned at 7 o'clock. 
It is with much pride that we can recommend this mode of travel 



38 MODERN ANTIQUITIES. 

to all who desire celerity. We liope the owners will reap a full 
harvest for their efforts to extend the usefulness of this inven- 
tion, which ennobles American character. 

The ennoblement of American character was all right, 
but that the boat was the harbinger of a vast com- 
merce for Lake Erie, and of essential importance to 
local interests, evidently had not then dawned on Buf- 
falo journalistic enterprise and "much pride." 

The wreck of the hull of the steamboat was com- 
plete, but her machinery remained intact, and as she 
had been a financial success, it was determined to 
replace her by the building of a new hull. Then the 
citizens of Buffalo entered into correspondence with 
the builders, urging such construction at Buffalo, re- 
sulting in a promise to that eft'ect if assurance be 
given that a channel would be provided for the boat 
out onto the lake when completed. 

Early in January, 1822, Mr. Noah Brown, ship- 
wright and builder of the original boat, came from 
New York to commence the construction, and first 
appeared at Black Rock, Buffalo people not being- 
aware of his arrival until it was announced that the 
boat was to be built at Black Rock, and that the con- 
tracts for material were to be executed at the Mansion 
House that evening. Buffalonians were advised that 
Brown was instructed to build at Buffalo, with condi- 
tions equal, and were indignant at his hasty action in 
not having conferred with them before concluding to 
build at Black Rock. When evening came the lower 



EARLY NAVIGATION. 39 

rooms of the hotel were filled with indimiant villao-ers 
to demand explanation from Mr. Brown, then in the 
house, and determined, if possible, to obtain a reversal 
of his decision in favor of Black Rock before contracts 
for the delivery of material were signed. The gentle- 
men from the river village were on hand to receive 
their contracts, and whatever was done must be done 
quickly. Judge Wilkeson was selected to first inter- 
view Mr. Brown. The Judge was unacquainted with 
the gentleman from New York, but there was no time 
for formalities. " Get the boat built here and we will 
sustain your action," were his instructions, and he then 
sought out the seclusion of Mr. Brown and proceeded 
to business. 

In correspondence with the j^rincipals Judge Wil- 
keson was advised that if a bond was given that a 
channel would be constructed in time to meet the 
wants of the boat, Mr. Brown was instructed to build 
at Buffalo, and thereby was prepared for a pointed 
dialogue. It opened thus : 

" Mr. Brown, why do you not build your boat here, 
pursuant to the promise of the company?" was the 
direct question put. With dignified tone and manner 
came the reply : 

" Why, sir, I arrived in your village at an early 
hour, and concluded to occupy the morning in consult- 
ing the ship-carpenters at Black Rock, who worked for 
me in building the Walh-in-tlie- Water. While there 
I was told that your harbor project was a humbug, 



40 MODERN ANTIQUITIES. 

and if built here the boat could not get out into the 
lake. Besides, the timber contractors would not deliver 
timber here as cheaply as there, and that is the reason 
why I concluded to build at Black Rock." 

Many older citizens will readily imagine the deter- 
mined attitude of Judge Wilkeson at this critical 
moment. As usual in emergencies, he was equal to 
the occasion. His language was plain, and its direct- 
ness sublime : 

"Mr. Brown, our neighbors have done us injustice. 
Sir, we are prepared to make you this proposition : 
We will at once execute a bond to pay to your com- 
pany il50 per day for each and every day the boat is 
detained for the want of a channel into the lake after 
the first day of May next. The bond will also stipulate 
that all required timber for construction will be fur- 
nished at a less cost than offered at Black Rock. We 
will at once place in your hands a sum of money, the 
same to be forfeited in case a sufficient bond is not 
immediately executed and to you delivered." 

It was known that the agent was predisposed in favor 
of Black Rock, but the proposition squarely meeting 
his instructions, together with its earnest delivery, sub- 
dued the gentleman into meekness in his reply : 

''Mr. Wilkeson, your proposition is quite satisfac- 
tory, and therefore I have no alternative but to accept 
it. My attorney, Mr. Moulton, will see that the doc- 
uments are properly made out and executed." 

The day following a bond was executed, receiving 



EARLY NAVIGATION. 41 

the signatures of nearly all responsible residents of 
the village, and a contract to furnish all required tim- 
ber was taken by William A. Carpenter, and by him 
fulfilled. The boat was built on the bank of Buffalo 
creek, where now is Indiana street, and when comple- 
ted was taken out on the lake by Captain William T. 
Miller, and returned without hindrance, and so con- 
tinued to pass out and in for twelve years thereafter. 
The passing of the steamboat out and in from the lake 
doubled the value of all the landed property in the 
village and its surroundings. With the villagers it 
was a day of jubilee, and tradition says the majority 
did not disturb their beds until the dawn of the next 
day. The indomitable will and energy Judge Wilke- 
son displayed in the construction of the channel for 
the steamboat was the talk of the town for years after. 
He had labored with the workmen, often in water, and 
conformed to the rule governing the hours of labor, 
from daylight to evening twilight. With him it was 
a labor of love, he receiving no recompense for his 
service other than benefits received in general. The 
work performed was the excavation of a channel 
through a point of sand and gravel twenty yards wide, 
having an average height above water of seven feet, 
to a depth of nine feet below the water level. A 
modern dredge would make an easy and short job of 
it, but then only improvised imi3lements for excavation 
below the surface of water were to be obtained, and 
of a nature most crude. 



42 MODERN ANTIQUITIES. 



CHAPTER IV. 



Public amusement for Buffalo villagers was first 
provided in 1820, when Mr. Charles, a ventriloquist, 
gave exhibitions in the court-house. Then a caravan, 
comprising an elephant, camel, lion, tiger, zebra, and 
a family of monkeys, were exhibited. Then came a 
show of wax figures, representing notables of Colony 
times. On Main below Clinton street was a theatre, 
where " King Richard " first appeared in Buffalo in 
the person of Mr. Maywood. And there Tom and 
Jerry appeared before their advent in a liquid state. 
In 1828 Mr. Lowell established a museum in the 
building now 242 Main street, he leasing the premises 
from Josiah Beardsley. 

My earliest recollection of public entertainment was 
that of '' Old Sickles' Show," which with me antedates 
the circus. During the decade of the thirties, a benev- 
olent-faced, bald-pated old Yankee from Connecticut, 
named Sickles, made annual visits to Western New 
York exhibiting his puppet show, an entertainment 
designed to please the juveniles, who, with their grand- 
mas, mammas and aunts, were his delighted audiences. 
Usually the show was given in the ball-room of the 
neighborhood tavern, where, from a wire stretched 
across the upper end of the room, draw-curtains were 



EARLY AMUSEMENTS. 43 

suspended, which, when drawn, an assemblage of pup- 
pets appeared, representing both sexes, and which, 
through their connection with invisible wires, would 
hold receptions, dance reels and minuets with precision, 
taking steps in time to the notes of an invisible violin. 
In addition to the puppets a series of tableaux were 
presented, ending with that of the " Babes in the 
Woods," a scene designed to bring sobs and tears 
from the child audiences. There was represented a 
lonely forest, the lost children lying on the ground in 
death's embrace, when would appear a family of robins, 
hopping and flitting about, gathering leaves, with which 
they covered the dead babes. The effect of this scene 
on sympathetic childhood is illustrated in a verse of 
Eliza Cook's " Address to the Robin " : 

How my tiny lieart throbbed with sorrowful heaves, 
That kept choking my eyes and my breath, 

When I heard of thee spreading- a shroud of green leaves 
O'er the little ones lonely in death. 

The original troupe of Negro Minstrels — '' burnt 
cork artists " — was organized and first exhibited in 
Buffalo in the latter thirties, by Edwin Christy, a dock 
saloon-keeper. The industry was original with Christy, 
he taking inspiration from the performance of Dick 
Sliter and George Harrington, two town boys. Sliter 
was precocious as a jig dancer, while Harrington could 
beat time with his hands expertly. When about fif- 
teen years of age, the boys v/ould repair to the steam- 
boat wharves and display their peculiar talent to 



44 MODERN ANTIQUITIES. 

admiring crowds, who would strew small coin around 
the feet of the dancer. At first the beaten jig time 
was a rapid patting on the fore thighs, called juba: 

Juba up and juba down, 

Juba all around the town, ad fi nit am. 

Christy patronized the two boys, Harrington being 
his step-son, usually called George Christy, who would 
locate their exhibitions fronting or within his saloon. 
Christy was a fine ballad singer and a violinist, and in 
these accomplishments the step-son was his diligent 
student. With Sliter and Harrington the nucleus, by 
adding tambourine and banjo ])layers, and an additional 
violinist, an exhibition troupe was constituted, and in 
a room over -his saloon, Christy, as manager, gave 
daily and nightly his " Darkey Minstrel Show " to 
crowded houses, and from the first opening Christy's 
fortune was secure. From time to time additional 
talent was added, and "Christy's Minstrels" were 
widely famous in their portrayal of negro character, 
excentricity and extravaganza. Christy was progress- 
ive in taking his troupe to New York City, where he 
established them in permanent quarters, and where 
they continuously performed to crowded audiences, 
their manager eventually retiring with a fortune. Thus 
originated the " burnt-cork artists," so numerous for 
years thereafter. 

Dick Sliter became the most diverse dancer in the 
world. In a match exhibition against John Diamond, 



OLD FERRY LANDING. 45 

he danced his Rattlesnake Jig one honr and five min- 
ntes without repeating* a step. During his exhibition 
tour he traversed two continents. In London, in 
private exhibition, he jigged before an audience of 
royalty. 

A ferry across to Fort Erie from the historic black 
rock, near Bird Island, existed at an early date, there 
being one reported by early voyagers in times of the 
Revolution. In 1800 one O'Neil operated it, until 
1806, when Major Frederick Miller took charge, and 
in 1808 he gave over to Asa Stanard. In deference 
to the war the ferry was suspended in 1812 for a time, 
until 1814, when it was renewed by Lester Brace. 
Until 1821 Brace operated the ferry, when Major 
Donald Fraser became proprietor. The boats used 
were scows, propelled by sweeps, wielded by the strong- 
arms of four skilled watermen. 

In 1825 Lester Brace and Major Fraser built the 
horse-power boat, which they continued to operate 
until steam-power was adopted for the ferry by James 
Haggart, in 1840. In the construction of the Erie 
Canal in 1825, the old rock, which so long served 
as a ferry landing, was blasted away and the landing 
removed to where it remains, at the foot of Ferry street. 

The old-time horse-boat was a curiosity of the period, 
it being the pioneer of its kind west of the Hudson 
river. When first operated it received liberal patron- 
age from many curious to inspect its working. The 
machinery of the boat consisted of a horizontal tread- 



HORSE-POAVER BOAT. 47 

wheel the width of the deck and placed even therewith, 
and having a system of cogs and gearing which turned 
t?he shaft holding the paddle wheels. The horses trod 
on either side, the driver between with whip in hand, 
with which he flayed the poor beasts while the boat 
was under way. When a boy, the writer often crossed 
the Niagara river on the horse-boat, and, while pitying 
the poor horses, detested the man with the whip. 

Major Donald Fraser was a valiant soldier of the 
war of 1812. He was on the staff of General Pike 
when that brave officer was killed at Toronto ; was on 
the staff of General Brown at Chippewa and Lundy's 
Lane ; aide to General Porter at Fort Erie, and cap- 
tain of the horse-boat when there were no battles to 
fight. A brave man and a patriot was the Major, and 
withal a Scotchman, and as a Scotchman I am proud 
of him — as said Josh Billings of his ancestor who was 
a "phiddler." 

In March, 1824, the lone steamboat on Lake Erie 
was thus advertised : 

The steamboat Superior will sail from Buffalo on or about the 
20th day of April, next, if the lake is then clear of ice, making 
nine day trips during the season — the November trips dependent 
on the state of the weather. Passengers will be landed at Grand 
River, Cleveland and Sandusky, unless prevented by stress of 
weather. If a trip should be made to the upper lakes during the 
season, due notice will be given. All shipments of merchandise 
on the boat will be at the risk of the owner or shipper thereof, 
and that the captain of the boat is to receive no freight unless 
shipped under such conditions. J. I. Ostrandek, 

Albany, March 16, 1824. Secretary. 



48 MODERN ANTIQUITIES. 

During the decade of the twenties, village news- 
papers contained many unique advertisements, some 
of which were spiced with humor. 

A dealer in pottery desired those indebted to him 
whose promises had matured, to make payment, " or 
new promises." 

An advertiser, with absurd honesty, called attention 
of the owner to a green cotton umbrella left in his office. 

H. S. Seymour dealt in lottery tickets. He gi-a- 
ciously, by advertisement, notified " two young men, 
living somewhere in the town of Clarence, that their 
ticket purchased of him had drawn a prize of one 
thousand dollars, and that the cash was awaiting the 
rightful owners at his office." 

An advertisement of Peter Colt makes the diversity 
of the present department stores ancient history : 
" Pork, whisky, cross-cut saws, buffalo robes, gin and 
feathers." 

In connection with a general store, Pratt and Meech 
did a forwarding business. They were enabled to guar- 
antee the delivery of goods from Albany " in the short 
space of twelve days." They offered for sale, " drugs, 
dye-stuffs, medicines, surgical instruments, leather, In- 
dian blankets, rum, log-chains, groceries, salt, whisky 
and whitefish." 

" For Sale — A negro servant girl," was the adver- 
tisement of Jonas Harrison. 

In 1820 five young negro slaves were brought to 
Buffalo from Kentucky, the property of Mrs. Gen. 



UNIQUE ADVERTISEMENTS. 49 

Peter B. Porter. After filing a bond that they would 
be liberated at the age of twenty-one years, Mrs. Por- 
ter was permitted to hold her chattels. 

Samuel Edsall called attention to his tannery and 
shoe-shop, situated " on the road to Black Rock, near 
the village of Buffalo," now the corner of Niagara and 
Mohawk streets. 

For Sale — A lease of lot No. 4, Le Couteiilx Block, opposite 
Cheapside. On tlie premises are two stores witli rooms in tlie 
rear for dwellings, and space for family gardens. One dollar and 
fifty cents per foot front per annum. Thomas Quigley. 

The location is now 191 Main street. 

A prominent hotel advertisement reads as follows : 

E. Belden, proprietor of tlie Mansion House, respectfully in- 
forms the public that he has taken the old-established stage 
house at the south end of the village of Buffalo, long known as 
the Landon stand. The house is large and in complete repair. 
Its spacious piazzas furnish the most extensive, rich and varied 
prospects of land and water, overlooking Buffalo harbor, Niagara 
river. Fort Erie, the lake, and extensive landscapes on the Amer- 
ican and Canadian shores. His extensive yards, gardens and 
shrubbery will furnish pleasant and refreshing retreat to ladies 
and gentlemen after the fatigues of travelling. Carriages with 
safe drivers and moderate fare will be furnished to men of busi- 
ness or parties of pleasure wishing to travel out of the usual 
stage routes. His stables and pastures are large and convenient. 
His house at all times will be supplied with the fruits of the 
season, and the best liquors and provisions the country affords ; 
and he trusts that approved experience and punctual attendance 
and good servants will keep up the long-established character of 
the house, and give general satisfaction to the public. 

Buffalo, July, 1824. 



50 MODERN ANTIQUITIES. 



CHAPTER V. 



The year 1825 was largely eventful to the people of 
Buffalo. The celebration of the opening of the Erie 
Canal was an event of wide importance, reaching from 
the sea-board to the confines of Western civilization, 
with Buffalo the storm-center, as it were. Gov. Dewitt 
Clinton and staff came to Buffalo and, with a local 
committee, boarded the Seneca Chiefs a boa-t con- 
structed for the purpose, and made the passage of the 
canal to Albany. The departure of the boat was 
announced by the discharge of a 32-pounder. Other 
cannon were placed on the bank of the canal within 
hearing distance all the way to Albany, which were 
discharged in turn, and thus the departure of the 
Seneca Chief ivom. Buffalo was announced at Albany 
in one hour and forty minutes, then the fastest dis- 
patch time on record. 

The Black Rock dignitaries, not then reconstructed 
from their civil war with Buffalonians, declined to join 
Buffalo in celebrating, but chartered the new boat 
Niagara^ built by the late Josiah Beardsley to run 
as a packet to and from Lockport, which they had 
painted and decorated profusely, carrying a large, live 
eagle perched aloft on a standard, for their passage 
down the canal. Intending to lead the Seneca Chief 



OPENING OF ERIE CANAL. 51 

through the state, they started from Black Rock two 
hours in advance of that boat's scheduled time from 
Buffalo, but such design was frustrated by an order of 
Governor Clinton that no boat be passed through the 
locks eastward in advance of the Seneca Chief. The 
Black Rock party consisted of General Porter, Shel- 
don Thompson, Lester Brace, and a Mr. Mason. 
Eventually all became reconciled and were potent 
factors in promoting the interests of Buffalo, Mr. 
Thompson becoming mayor of the city in 1840, and 
Mr. Brace for two terms was sheriff of the county. 

The visit to Buffalo of General Lafayette the same 
year was an event tending to arouse latent patriotic 
enthusiasm. American gratitude to the liberty-pro- 
moting foreigner was boundless, and his reception at 
Buffalo was most enthusiastic. The communities of 
Western New York gathered in mass to greet him. 
On a platform, erected at the corner of Court and 
Main streets, he was introduced to the mass of people 
by General Porter, and the address of welcome there 
made to him by Oliver Forward was considered the 
most dignified and eloquent presented to the General 
while in the country. Red Jacket, also, improved his 
opportunity to have a " big talk." When the cere- 
mony was ended, the General was escorted by the 
military and citizens to the residence of General Por- 
ter, at Black Rock, where he was entertained for a 
day, and then, in like manner, was escorted to the 
Falls. 



52 MODERN ANTIQUITIES. 

By far the most sensational event of the year was 
the hanging of the three Thayers in open view on 
Niagara Sqnare. Sufficiently sensational to stir up a 
much larger community — sufficient to cause the inva- 
sion of the town by full twenty thousand visitors, a 
number sufficient to overwhelm a struooiino- village of 
two thousand inhabitants. 

Lafayette Park, now classic ground, was, in village 
times, an open space, with here and there a tree 
of indigenous growth. On the Main street edge, 
fronting the site of the monument, a spring of water 
bubbled out of the earth and ran a rivulet across the 
street and down Court street, finally mingling with a 
larger stream crossing Niagara at Mohawk street. At 
the spring the side-path was continued over a wide 
oaken plank spanning the outlet. Here Farmer's 
Brother, Red Jacket and other lords of the soil were 
wont to quench their thirst, drinking from a tin cup 
taken from the to]^ of a buttonwood stump near by ; 
here the village boys played two -old -cat, tag and 
leap-frog, and on the Fourth of July exploded fire- 
crackers and gorged themselves with gingerbread and 
small-beer ; here village orators waxed eloquent advo- 
cating the construction of the Erie Canal, and a har- 
bor for Buffalo ; here General McComb, when head 
of the army, patriotically addressed the peo^jle, and 
Henry Clay, Daniel Webster and the patriot Kossuth 
orated in like manner. The beautiful Soldiers' Monu- 
ment stands on the direct line of march of the three 



LAFAYETTE PARK. 53 

Thayers down Court street to their execution on Niag- 
ara square ; and six years later, Holt, the wife-killer, 
marched in procession to his open-air exhibition. 

In 1932 Buffalo will celebrate its centennial — just one 
hundred years a city. From the base of the monument 
the orator of the day will glorify the deeds of the heroes 
it commemorates and boast of the progress of Buffalo, 
quoting from the address of Mayor Grover Cleveland 
delivered from the same place fifty years before. 

The little park came nigh unto being the scene of a 
hand-to-hand conflict between village neighbors on 
election day in 1828. The voting place was at the 
corner of Clinton and Washington streets. On the 
eve of the election the partisans of General Jackson 
erected a hickory flag-staff on the opposite corner and 
from its top they proposed to fly a flag on the day of 
the election bearing a likeness of their candidate for 
President. The Adams men objected to the flaunting 
of the, to them, offensive emblem so near to the polls, 
and resolutely declared that if the flag was raised they 
would pull it down, forcibly if they must. The Jack- 
sonians asserted their right to fly the flag and their 
determination to raise it and to defend it when raised. 
Such was the situation on the eve of the election. 

On Buffalo Plains were resident a band of stalwart 
men noted for their prowess and of their proneness to 
assert it when occasion offered. Of these were in- 
cluded Elijah and William Holt, John and eTosiah 
Hosford, Rowland and Daniel Cotton, John and Jacob 



54 MODERN ANTIQUITIES. 

Scott, Luman Smith and Nelson Adams, a Spartan 
band of Jacksonians, loaded to the muzzle with cam- 
paign enthusiasm. 

To the " Plains Eangers," as they were called, the 
village partisans of " Old Hickory " applied for aid to 
defend their flag. On the morning of the election the 
flag was hoisted to the pole-top. Then the Adams 
men gathered in numbers at the Park House, corner 
of Main and Clinton streets, where an assaulting force 
was organized, who proceeded in a body to demand 
the lowering of the flag. When they approached the 
flag-staff and discovered the Plains contingent among 
those whom they were to encounter, a halt was called, 
a consultation, and then a dispersion of the attacking 
force. No demand was made and the flag waved, and 
General Jackson was elected President without blood- 
shed in Buffalo. Thus was exemplified the maxim : 
To promote peace prepare for war — and the folly of 
partisan rancor. 

Preserved in frame -by the Historical Society is an 
old ball ticket of the village era, unique in print, and 
rural in that the assemblage is requested to meet at 
two o'clock P. M. Evidently the small hours of the 
morning were devoted to rest and sleep by the dancers 
of the period. However, they danced with both feet 
while the fiddler voiced in a manner thus : 

Riglit hand across, left hand back, 

Keep your steps in time. 
Take hold of your partner's hand 

And balance in a line. 



BUFFALO PLAINS. 55 



CHAPTER VL 



During the village era an adjacent community to 
Buffalo villagers were the settlers of Buffalo Plains, 
with whom they lived in the same township, met at the 
polls, socially and at church, virtually one community. 
The Plains were originally settled by a colony of far- 
mers from the lake region of Central New York. First 
to come on a tour of inspection was Samuel Atkins, in 
1806, from Cayuga, on horseback, traversing Indian 
trails through a dense forest to Buffalo — not to specu- 
late in village lots, but to purchase farm lands for 
himself and others who desired to settle near unto the 
site of the great city that was to arise at the foot of 
Lake Erie. 

Mr. Atkins remained at Buffalo through the sum- 
mer, returning to Cayuga in the fall of that year. 
Before his return he engaged for himself and others 
tracts of land lying on the "Main Road" from four 
to six miles from the hamlet at the foot of the lake, in 
a northeast direction ; selecting for himself about three 
hundred acres on the east side and midway of the 
tract, on which, while at Buffalo in 1806, he erected 
a house of logs wherein to place his family the fol- 
lowing year. 



56 MODERN ANTIQUITIES. 

In the spring of 1807, there left Cayuga with their 
families, Samuel Atkins, Ephraim Brown, Ezekiel 
Smith, Rowland Cotton, Roswell Ilosford, William 
and Elijah Holt, Caleb and Joseph Fairchild ; all on 
horseback, with such household effects as could be so 
transported. The year following they were joined by 
the families of Zachary Griffin and Dr. Daniel Chapin. 
All of these took up lands and formed the old com- 
munnity of farmers who were the original settlers of 
Buffalo Plains. Nearly all were soldiers of the Revo- 
lution and drew pensions from the Government, and 
had grown-up sons and daughters skilled in husbandry. 
Mr. Atkins' family consisted of five sons and two 
daughters ; three of the sons and both daughters were 
approaching maturity — a formidable force to make a 
new home in a new country. With the exception of 
Mr. Cotton and the Holts, the heads of all these fam- 
ilies occupied their new-made homes during the remain- 
der of their lives. In 1826 Mr. Cotton sold his farm 
to Washington A. Russell and settled in the town of 
Lancaster ; and subsequently the Holts sold theirs to 
Elisha Ensign and removed to Ohio. 

The frontage of the Griffin farm is now divided by 
the Belt Line railroad as it approaches Main street 
from the south. The Chapin farm now comprises 
beautiful Willow Lawn, the home of Mrs. Elam R. 
Jewett, and the southerly half of Park Meadow, in- 
cluding the magnificent groves, lawns and terraces 
fringing the north bank of Park Lake. The frontage 



BUFFALO PLAINS. 57 

of the Cotton farm continues in occupation by the son 
and daughters of Mr. Russell, while the remainder 
comprises the site of modern dwellings on Parkside, 
together with the northerly half of Park Meadow and 
picturesque Park Forest. The Holt and Smith farms 
are now the place of extensive stone quarries and water- 
lime works ; and the Brown farm, lying opposite the 
County Almshouse, is mostly an unoccupied waste; 
and so is the Fairchild property, situated on the west 
side of the road just north of the Lackawanna Rail- 
road crossing. 

The old domain of Samuel Atkins is now a desolate 
and neglected ruin. Where once were fields of golden 
grain, orchards and gardens of luxuriant production, 
is now covered with a riotous growth of weed, brier 
and thistle. The engines of two railroads toot and 
hoot over the waste, consonant with its presentment, 
an owl's abiding-place. 

For several years past this realty has been the sub- 
ject of continued and costly litigation. When a young 
man, it was to the writer a barren inheritance, and 
ever since a plague spot in memory. 

On this property, in 1807, Mr. Atkins erected a 
majestic structure of logs, consisting of three separate 
buildings, made so by two dividing passages through 
the lower story, while the upper story and roof re- 
mained intact. The building entire was eighteen by 
eighty feet on the ground, with sides thirteen feet high 
— quite an imposing frontier establishment. Here Mr. 



58 



MODERN ANTIQUITIES. 



Atkins kei3t a tavern, a house of entertainment for 
travelers and pilgrims journeying to the new West. 
Many veterans of the war of the Revolution had set- 
tled on the Niagara frontier, and the old log tavern 
was their headquarters — was where they held their 




camp-fires and fought their battles anew. To a man 
they sustained the policy of President Madison to 
maintain the majesty of the starry flag on the high 
seas. In possession of the writer is a printed poster, 
dated April 16, 1811, calling a meeting for such pur- 
pose at the old tavern. The time-bleached paper and 
quaint type chai^acterizes it a veritable spirit of liberty 
and independence. 



BUFFALO PLAINS. 59 

The old tavern was the refuge of many fleeing 
families from torch and tomahawk on that fatal day 
and night of 1813, from burning Buffalo. The 
house survived until 1823, when it was replaced 
by the large frame structure long known as the 
" Old Homestead." 

The house erected by Mr. Atkins in 1806 was sub- 
sequently the district school-house, in which, during 
the decade of the thirties, the writer attended school. 
His education was there hastened to completion by the 
pungent rawhide, wielded by the strong arms of sun- 
dry esteemed pedagogues, the most severe of whom 
posed as an orthodox Christian. But he died one day, 
and the conviction that he was thereafter kept warm 
amidst the glare of the Calvinistic process, gave con- 
solation to his victims. Woodward ! thou are not lost 
to memory dear — thy fame is here perpetuated. The 
site of the old school-house is now buried beneath the 
embankment of the D., L. & W. Railroad at its Main 
street crossing. 

Of the original settlers of Buffalo Plains, first and 
second generations alike have vanished — 

" Gone like tenants who quit witliout warning, 
Down the back entry of time." 

With two exceptions all the old buildings erected 
by the pioneers of Buffalo Plains have disappeared. 
The residence of Zachary Griffin, erected in 1809, and 
a house erected in 1817 by Anna Atkins, widow of 



60 MODERN ANTIQUITIES. 

Samuel, are still in evidence just east of tlie Belt Line 
crossing. Ephraim Brown was the eldest of these old 
settlers, reaching the age of eighty years at his death 
sixty years ago. The old war-worn veteran with cane 
in hand would limp among the school children, who 
would flock around to hear him recite the story of his 
battles, and to hear him chant the army rhymes of the 
good old Colony times. The old man was stalwart of 
frame, but quite lame, the effect of a musket ball 
penetrating his knee at the battle of Trenton. With 
children grouped around him " Old Mr. Brown " would 
sing thus : 

A haughty ship o'er the ocean came, 
All loaded deep with fire and flame, 
And other things I need not name. 
To have a "dash at Stonington." 

The old razee, with hot ball, 
Did make a farmer's barrack fall, 
And a codfish fleet did sadly mavil, 
About one mile from Stonington. 

Now some assert on certain grounds, 
Beside the damage and the wounds, 
It cost King George ten thousand pounds 
To have a " dash at Stonington." 

Buffalo Plains has a war record. In the fall of 
1812 the Army of the Frontier went into winter quar- 
ters on Flint Hill. The camp extended on Main street 
frorri the present Humboldt parkway northerly to the 



62 MODERN ANTIQUITIES. 

lands of Dr. Daniel Chapin, now the Jewett prop- 
erty, and westerly to the head of Park Lake, on lands 
belonging to Erastus Granger, then Collector of Cus- 
toms and Postmaster of Buffalo. On the Main street 
front of this old camp-ground stand several venerable 
oaks, relicts of the old camp. The one directly oppo- 
site the Deaf and Dumb Asylum is distinguished as 
the one under which a row of soldiers kneeled when 
shot for desertion in the springs of 1813. The vener- 
able oaks are still vigorous, but their lives are in dan- 
ger. The land boomer and builder covet the space 
they occupy and they may soon disappear from view. 
Boomer, spare those trees, let the old oaks stand ! 



THE GREAT LAKES. 63 



CHAPTER VII. 



At the advent of the steamboat in 1818, Lake Erie 
was navigated by a fleet of small sail craft, fully ade- 
quate for the commerce then existing between points 
on the lake. An early enrollment reads : 

Sell. Experiment, 30 tons. Samuel Wilkeson and James Hale, 
owners. Samuel Wilkeson, master. 

Captain Wilkeson lost his nautical title when Judge 

on the bench, and Mayor of Buffalo. A clearance 

dated November, 1819, reads : 

Cleared, Sch. Nautilus, 26 tons, Atkins, master, for Cleveland 
and Sandusky, with passengers and household goods. 

Eager to emigrate to the new West in 1819, families 
would pack themselves with their goods on board a 
diminutive sail craft, and brave the perils of turbulent 
Lake Erie in the tempestuous month of November. 
Yet there are people who discount the valor of our 
forefathers. 

Guy el. Atkins, master of the Nautilus^ was a val- 
iant defender of Buffalo and the frontier during the 
war of 1812, an associate of Dr. Cyrenius Chapin in 
his several raids for reprisals during the conflict. 

The sailing fleet tributary to Buffalo when assuming 
the dignity of a city, comprised about fifty small 



64 MODERN ANTIQUITIES. 

schooners and sloops, three or four of which had 
smelled powder in the battle of Lake Erie. Notably 
among them was the schooner Queen Charlotte^ a 200- 
ton vessel. Having been naturalized amid the roar of 
artillery, she sailed the lake a merchantman several 
years thereafter. Prior to 1836 she was under the 
command of Capt. Lester H. Cotton, a life resident of 
Buffalo— one of the " old folks." 

The first sail-vessel to clear from Buffalo, bound for 
Chicago, was the brig Illinois^ Capt. James Shook, in 
1834. An historic vessel was the schooner John 
Kinsie^ she bringing the first cargo of wheat to Buf- 
falo out of Lake Michigan, 3,000 bushels from Grand 
River. Regular shipments of grain from Lake Michi- 
gan commenced in 1840. That year Chicago shipped 
10,000 bushels of wheat to Buffalo. In 1836 the 
lakes were sailed by two full-rigged ships, the Julia 
Pahne)\ Capt. Robt. Wagstaff, and the Milwaukie^ 
Capt. William Dickson. Captains Wagstaff' and 
Dickson were old Neptunes of the lakes, and long resi- 
dents of Buffalo. The old homestead of Captain 
Dickson is still in existence on Barker street, but not 
as secluded as when occupied by him fifty years ago. 

Notably among the vessels that were in commission 
on the lakes in 1840, were three brigs, the Illinois^ 
Capt. James Shook, No7'th Carolina^ Capt. Gus. Mc- 
Kinstry, and Indiana^ Cajit. Aaron Root. Asaph S. 
Bemis was then mate of the Indiana. These men 
were web-footed, and sailed the Great Lakes with 



66 MODERN ANTIQUITIES. 

audacity and impunity. Many acquaintances of A. S. 
Bemis in his later life were not aware of the fact that 
he was an experienced navigator. He had many com- 
mands, his last being the steamboat Star^ in 1841-42. 
Private interests caused his retirement from a profes- 
sion he loved and honored. 

The sailing fleet of 1835-36 included the following 
vessels and masters : 

BRIGS, CAPTAINS. 

Illinois, Robert Wagstaff. 

Indiana, Augustus McKinstry. 

Nortli Carolina, .... Aaron Root. 

SCHOONERS. CAPTAINS. 

Nucleus, Thomas P. Folger. 

President, Benjamin Sweet. 

Globe, Zeph Perkins. 

Hercules, Benjamin Boomer, 

Michigan, William Dickson. 

Telegraph, Peter Smith. 

Bolivar, C. H. Ludlow. 

Queen Charlotte, . . . L. H, Cotton. 

Buffalo, Robert Hart. 

Henry Norton, .... Jerry Oliver. 

Warren, George Montieth. 

Nancy Dousman, .... James Shook. 

Marie Antoinette. . . . Edward Macy. 

Panama, . . ,' . . . Richard Meeks. 

Thomas Hart, Thomas Melville. 

Daniel Webster, , . , . J. D, Moon. 

John Grant, John Nelson. 

Florida, N. K. Randall. 

Young Amaranth, ... J. W. Ransom. 



THE GREAT LAKES. 67 

SCHOONERS. CAPTAINS. 

Alabama, Abner Smith. 

Commerce, Reuben Smith. 

Hiram, Ezra Rathbim. 

John Adams, J. A. Barker. 

Cincinnati, William Dorrit. 

Post Boy, Morgan Edgecomb. 

John Richards, . . . . R. Ferguson. 

L. Jenkins, Daniel Fuller. 

Ware, John Garnsey. 

Comet, Seth Green. 

Benjamin Rusk, .... Augustus Todd. 

Marshal Ney, Lyman Harvey. 

La Porte, Benjamin Owen. 

Constitution, ... . A. H. Squier. 

Columbus, David Clark. 

Dewitt Clinton, .... William Christian. 

Agnes Barton, . . . . J. G. Ludlow. 

Ben Franklin, .... Samuel Blackley. 

United States, .... Edward Burke. 

Eclipse, . . . , . . John Berg. 

Wyandotte, B. Black. 

Alert, Walter Atwell. 

Farmer, Hugh Soper. 

Navigator, James Thorpe. 

Enterprise, W. S. Thorpe. 

John C. Spencer, . . , Stephen Walker, 

Lewis Goler, John Warren. 

Thomas Hart, .... David White. 

Col. Crockett, .... John Whitney. 

Philipps, Charles Howe. 

New Connecticut, . . . William Kennedy. 

Duke of Wellington, . . John Medler. 

After the loss of the original boat, and during the 

village era, eleven steamboats were constructed for the 



68 



MODERN ANTIQUITIES. 



navigation of the lake, ten of which were in commis- 
sion when the city was inaugurated. Appended are 
their names, and the names of their commanders : 



STEAMBOATS. 

Superior, . 

Niagara, No. 1, 

Henry Clay, 

Sheldon Thompson, 

William Penn, 

William Peacock, 

Pioneer, 

Ohio, .... 

Enterprise, 

Caroline, 



CAPTAINS. 

William T. Pease. 
Charles C. Stanard. 
Walter Norton. 
Augustus Walker. 
David Wight. 
Thomas Wilkins. 
Charles Burnett. 
Morris Tyler. 
George Niles. 
James Pettey. 



The Peacock made tri-weekly trips to Conneaut, 
calling at Erie, Dunkirk and Barcelona. The Caro- 
line ran Niagara River to Chippewa and Schlosser dock. 
The remainder ran to Sandusky and Detroit. At first 
some one of the boats would extend one trip to Mack- 
inaw and Green Bay each season. In 1834 the 
Pioneer was wrecked on Lake Michigan when on such 
a trip. The Michigan came out during the summer of 
1832, commanded by Capt. Chesley Blake. Her first 
service was a trip to Green Bay, conveying General 
Scott, with a body of troops, for service in the Black 
Hawk War. During the passage cholera broke out 
on board, causing many deaths, principally among the 
troops. 

At this period there were four Canadian steam- 
boats in commission, mostly confined to home waters. 



70 MODERN ANTIQUITIES. 

one of which, the Thames^ commanded by Captain 
Van Allen, carried on trade with Buffalo. Mr. Van 
Allen, subsequently, was proprietor of the Claren- 
don Hotel in Buffalo. Excepting the William Penn^ 
owned by Rufus Reed, of Erie, all the American 
fleet were controlled at Buffalo, and their crews 
resided there. Such was the steam fleet of Lake Erie 
sixty-six years ago. Their combined tonnage was less 
than 2,000 tons. Recently a lake steamer was launched 
from a Buffalo ship-yard, not of the larger class, yet 
double the tonnage of the ten pioneer boats combined. 

The first steamboat to run the Niao^ara in reo'ular 
route, was the Caroline^ brought from Albany through 
the canal for the purpose, by shipping her guards. In 
1834 the Victory, eighty-seven tons, was built for the 
river route. She was commanded by Capt. John 
Hebard. In 1840 Capt. C. L. Gager built the Red 
Jacket for the route, but she was soon taken to the 
St. Clair River. Then on the river appeared in turn 
the Siun, Star and Waterloo, and finally the Emerald, 
a Canadian vessel, which plied the river for a number 
of years. After the Emercdd came the Arrow, a 
good boat, and after her the Clifton, the best of all. 
But the railroad to the Falls forced them to seek traffic 
on the upper rivers. 

Apparently the founding of a city on the shore o^ 
Lake Erie in 1832, was an incentive to ship-building, 
as the next year twelve new steamboats were added to 
the fleet. Seven others came in 1834, and a like num- 



THE GREAT LAKES. 71 

ber in 1835. With one exception the new boats were 
a slight improvement upon the old fleet. The excep- 
tion was the Washington, bnilt in 1833, the largest 
and best found boat so far appearing on the lake. But 
her career was limited to three trips. Encountering a 




The Thomas Jefferson — 1834. 

violent tempest on her third passage up the lake, she was 
wrecked on Long Point, a total loss. Then another 
steamboat appeared named the Washington, which 
was soon after burned on the lake, and since then the 
name Washington, for a lake vessel, has been neglected 
by ship-owners. Later there was a lake boat named 
Lady Washington, which escaped serious disaster. 



72 



MODERN ANTIQUITIES. 



In Black Rock harbor, a short distance above the 
shij)-lock, when the water is clear, may be seen on the 
bottom the wrecks of the early steamboats Henry 
Clay^ North America and Daniel Webster^ there 
moored as cast-aways, in 1842, to relieve crowded Buf- 
falo Creek. These boats were not over-aged when 
retired, but their primitive construction rendered them 
useless to compete with the more modern boats then in 
commission. 

The following named steamboats were navigating 
the lakes in 1835-36 : 



STEAMBOATS. 

Michigan, . 
Thomas Jefferson, 
Sandusky, . 
Daniel Webster, . 
General Porter, . 
United States, 
Charles Townsend, 
Pennsylvania, 
Monroe, 

Commodore Perry, 
Oliver Newberry, 
William Penn, 
William Peacock, 
North America 
Ohio, . 
Detroit, 
Delaware, 
Victory, 
Caroline, 
Governor Marc} 
Osweffo, 



CAPTAINS. 

Chesley Blake. 
Thomas Wilkins. 
T. J. Titus. 
Morris Tyler. 
Walter Norton. 
A. E. Hart. 
Simeon Fox. 
Levi Allen. 
Harry Whittaker. 
David Wilkinson. 
A. Edwards. 
David Wright. 
E. W. Pratt. 
Gilman Appleby. 
Charles Burnett. 
R. Gillett. 
Captain Cobb. 
John Hebard. 
James Pettey. 
Samuel Chase. 
James Homaus. 



THE GREAT LAKES. 73 

As a class the lake navigators of the period were 
men of striking individuality. Dobbins, Pease, Stan- 
ard, Norton, Allen, Blake, Wilkeson, Burnett, Cham- 
berlain, Lundy, Cotton, Wilkins, Wilkinson, Titus, 
Shainholdts, Walker, Ludlow, Goldsmith, Brundage, 
Fox, Folger, Pratt, Hart, Floyd, Squier, Randall, 
Whittaker, Wagstaff, Dickson, Caverly, Hinton, Wil- 
son, Shook, Hazard, Nickerson, Stewart, Sweet, Per- 
kins, Pheatt, Traverse, Bemis, Peter Smith, McBride, 
Averill, Gager, Appleby, Webster, Dorr, Wheeler, 
Atwood, Vary, Stone, Snow, Arthur, Watts, Hatha- 
way, Huff, Howland, and others of like caliber, were a 
class who, seemingly, arose for the requirements of the 
time ; bold and intrepid navigators, marking their 
courses without artificial aid — no charts, no buoys nor 
harbors of refuge, a paucity of lights, no guides other 
than the compass, the eye, the watch and the lead, the 
lakes not being navigated at that time by governmental 
appliances. 

During this era of flush steam-boating there was a 
world of emigration to the West — to Michigan, Wis- 
consin Indiana and Illinois, mostly from the farming 
communities of the Eastern States and the State of 
New York. The wharves at Buffalo, from the opening 
to the close of navigation, were crowded with these 
people, packing their household goods, farm imple- 
ments, farm animals and themselves on board steam- 
boats, bound for new homes in the productive West. 
Such congregations of people caused Buffalo to be the 



74 MODERN ANTIQUITIES. 

Mecca for hordes of snide operators, fakirs, nostrum 
venders, the pestiferous watch-stuffer, and other birds 
of prey, who flocked there to impose on the simplicity 
of the credulous emigrants. Notwithstanding that 
steamboat officers and others were diligent in warning 
unsuspecting strangers to beware of these inhuman 
sharks, they found victims in abundance. 

Then the era of illustrious steam-boating on Lake 
Erie was at its zenith. A fleet of magnificent passen- 
ger boats, luxurious in appointments, officered by 
skilled navigators, picturesque in ruffled linen and 
affability, no dearth of patronage, a world of travel, 
fair women and brave men, bands of music galore — 
hurrah, boys ! from the commencement to the close of 
each season, until that autocrat of the rail — the loco- 
motive — relegated the passenger steamer to inactivity 
during the decade of the fifties. 

The steamboat officers were active in prosecuting 
the boom, all partaking of the spirit of the times. 
Among those resident at Buffalo were the following- 
captains : 

L. H. Cotton, Henry Randall, C. M. Averill, 

Levi Allen, Harry Whittaker, George Willougliby, 

T. J. Titus, Oilman Appleby, C. E. Roby. 

C. H. Ludlow, Morris Hazard, Cliarles Brundage, 

John Hebard, Luther Chamberlain, Ira Davis, 

W. T. Pease, C. C. Stanard, H. Van Allen, 

A. S. Bemis, Simeon Fox, F. N. Jones, 

John Shook, A. H. Squier, A. D. Perkins, 

Augustus Walker, Heber Squier, F. S. Wheeler, 



76 



MODERN ANTIQUITIES. 



Benjamin Stanard, 
James N. Lundy, 
George W. Floyd, 
Charles Burnett, 
A. E. Hart, 
Archibald Allen, 
Robert Wagstaff, 
Walter Norton, 



James Shook, 
Samuel Vary, 
Peter Shainholdts, 
Thomas P. Folger, 
Amos Pratt, 
A. T. Kingman, 
William Caverly, 



William Davenport, 
F. S. Miller, 
Captain Robertson, 
W. P. Stone, 
C. L. Grager, 
J. L. Edmunds, 
Captain Pierce, 



Clinton Goldsmith, Jacob Imson. 



the 



Among 
following : 



Albert Harris, 
Alfred Harris, 
John Leonard, 
Charles Radcliff, 



resident steamboat engineers were the 



Austin Ripley, 
Almar Johnson, 
Gardner Williams, 
Asa Whittemore, 



Frank Peugeot, 
William McGee, 
James McGee. 



Of the pursers were : 

M. W. Dayton, O. H. P. Champlin, Charles Addington, 

Ralph Courter, C. B. Rice, Peter Hoyt, 

John J. Hollister, Joseph Barton, Edward Hallenbeck. 

The most active officers of the boats were the stew- 
ards, among whom were many residents of Buffalo : 



W. G. Corbett, 
John Fleming, 
Frank Jackson, 
Jacob Bellinger, 
Charles Baylis, 
Bartley Losfan. 



James Delano, 
Patrick Healey, 
A. B. Catlin, 
Harrison Chase, 
George Ayers, 
Jerome Chase, 



T. T. Bloomer, 
George Gillispie, 
George Blanchard, 
E, K. Bruce, 
B. F. Bruce, 
J. Bunker. 



All whose names are here recorded were well known 
in Buffalo, and who, with but few exceptions, have 
passed away. Captain Imson and Mr. Champlin still 
remain, old and venerated citizens of Buffalo. 



THE GREAT LAKES. 77 

At this period winter was the dull season in Buffalo. 
With the close of navigation, travel other than by 
stage lines was suspended. With resident lake navi- 
gators it was a season of social enjoyment, and with 
their round of pleasures, sleighing and dancing, they 
made things lively. Their motto was " Melancholy 
must go." With them it was : 

" To some ball, to some play, 
With some party every day, 
Drinking wine with. 
Some gentlemen or other." 

Of this festive squadron Capt. Fred Wheeler was 
the admiral. His associates were kept on the alert 
lest they became victims of his jokes and surprises. 

On the southeast corner of Main and Swan streets 
was Deacon Stocking's hat and fur store. Next below 
was the ribbon and bonnet store of John F. Williams, 
usually called '^ Bonnet Williams," and by Captain 
Wheeler, " The He Milliner " — a man noted for his 
quiet humor, and for his close friendship with Capt. 
Fred. Wheeler. 

It was a sunny morning in the month of April, when 
Captain Wheeler, awaiting the opening of navigation, 
came strolling up the street. Williams was having his 
store cellar renovated. The refuse was thrown up on 
the sidewalk. Capt. Wheeler protested to having the 
walk so obstructed. Williams replied that the wheel- 
barrow and shovel there standing was awaiting a man 
out of a job, and advised the Captain of his oppor- 



78 MODERN ANTIQUITIES. 

tunity to work and earn something, offering him ten 
cents for each load of dirt that he wonld wheel and 
dump in the rear. This proposition Captain Wheeler 
accepted, and at once plied the shovel in loading the 
barrow. When returning from the dump, he took 
fright at a buffalo-skin which Deacon Stocking was 
displaying on his awning frame and ran away with the 
wheel-barrow. Starting rapidly, he carromed on a 
gaily-dressed dummy standing at the front of Wil- 
liams's store, capsizing and decapitating the fair one. 
Wildly on he ran, down the street, into the Terrace, 
where, in collision with the Liberty Pole, the wheel- 
barrow was shattered into many parts and the runaway 
captured by Asa D. Wood and A. J. Tiffany, who led 
him into the Mansion House, where in time he became 
quieted. No lives lost ; damage, about twenty dollars. 
Once upon a time a dance-house flourished on the 
Lower Terrace, facing the canal. The upper story of 
the structure was even with the ground at its rear, 
where there was a lone window. Capt. Fred Wheeler, 
with companions, were passing by one evening, when 
they observed through the rear window a party of 
dancers skipping the light fantastic in high glee. On 
the ground near by lay an unmounted grindstone, some 
four feet in diameter. The grindstone was raised and 
taken to the bank in the rear of the dance-house, to 
which the down grade was about forty degrees. When 
the stone was started it rolled accurately, passing 
through the window and speeding on through the maze 



THE GREAT LAKES. 



79 



of dancers and through the front of the building into 
the canal, where, perhaps, it remains imbedded in the 
mud bottom. The consternation of the dancers at the 
sudden invasion of the grindstone may be imagined. 
A description would be difficult to write and do justice 
to the subject. I have ever more than suspected that 
my old friend and ex- 
County Treasurer, 
Charles R. Durkee, 
was an actor in that 
comedy. 

My first steamboat 
ride was in the sum- 
mer of 1837. In com- 
pany with my mother 
and young sister, we 
went to the foot of 
Main street and 
boarded the steam- 
boat William Penn^ 
bound for Dunkirk, 
to visit relatives. 
Being a youth of eleven years I was in affluence in 
having in my pocket a silver half-dollar, pocket money 
for the journey. To those who first go to sea in ships, 
seasickness is a dreaded anticij^ation. Prior to the 
departure of the boat there appeared to the passengers 
a long-haired, lop-eared, lantern-jawed, lank and limp 
specimen of humanity, soliciting them to purchase his 




The William Penn— 1826. 



80 MODERN ANTIQUITIES. 

panacea for seasickness — vials filled with a pink-colored 
solution of aqua, cinnamon essence and rose-water. 
Through his superlative assurance, aided by simplicity, 
he caught me. O, he " played it that day upon me 
in a way I despise " — relieved me of one-half of my 
capital at the outset of my journey. The picturesque 
perpetrator of the commodity, designed to cure all 
diseases of mind, body and estate, could not have per- 
fected it, for the boat had not proceeded more than a 
mile seaward from the lighthouse, before the dreaded 
malady had marked me for its own. 

The appropriation of a locomotive, and run off 
successfully, is an event of recent date, but the theft 
of a steamboat, successfully consummated, was an 
enterprise of a former era. During the latter thir- 
ties was built the steamboat MihoauMe^ a vessel de- 
signed more for speed than a bearer of burdens. In 
1841 she was owned jointly by parties of Buffalo and 
Milwaukee, between whom arose a legal controversy 
relative to their several interests in the steamboat. 
When the steamer was at the port of Buffalo she was 
laid up in ordinary in charge of a shipkeeper, on the 
principle that possession was points in the game. In 
the meantime the Milwaukee owners were reticent 
while hatching a scheme to obtain possession of the 
property in dispute by strategy. To manage the en- 
terprise they employed Capt. L. H. Cotton, who organ- 
ized a trusty crew and rendezvoused at Buffalo. On 
an August night of 1841, the boat was boarded, the 



82 MODERN ANTIQUITIES. 

shipkeeper seized, gagged and confined, steam raised, 
the moorings cast off, when the boat cautiously passed 
out onto the lake, and away she went, too speedy to be 
overtaken by any craft on the lakes. 

Buffalo owners were compelled to accept the situa- 
tion, there being no means to head off the fugitive, 
telegraph poles not then standing in line over the 
country. The following day Buffalo newspapers an- 
nounced thus : 

Lost, Strayed or Stolen — The low-pressure steamboat Mil- 
wavkie was last seen before day-break this morning rounding the 
lighthouse and skipping over the waters of Lake Erie. A liberal 
reward awaits whoever effects her arrest before reaching Lake 
Michigan. 

Their first landing was at Silver Creek pier, where 
they liberated their prisoner, and helped themselves to 
a few cords of wood there convenient, and then made 
a straight wake to Put-in-Bay Island, where more fuel 
was obtained. They then rapidly passed through the 
rivers to Lake Huron and on to Milwaukee, where she 
was run hard aground inside the mouth of the river, 
there to remain until sold to Oliver Newberry, of 
Detroit, who placed her engine and boilers in his new 
steamboat JVile. 

On May 12, 1844, the steamboat liochester left the 
foot of Main street, Buffalo, bound for Chicago, offi- 
cered as follows : Thomas P. Folger, master ; Harry 
Weishuen, mate ; William McGee, engineer ; O. H. 
P. Champlin, clerk; Bartley Logan, steward. 



THE GREAT LAKES. 83 

During his mechanical work engineer McGee had 
constructed a small steam-whistle, patterned from 
plans published in the Scientific Americcm^ which he 
attached to the boiler of the Rocheste7\ more for its 
novelty than for its utility. Before the boat left the 
wharf the whistle was sounded, the first to give voice 
in the region of the Great Lakes. Prior to the whis- 
tle, loud-sounding bells were hung above decks on all 
lake vessels, which supplied the needs of the present 
steam-whistle. 

During the winter jireceding, Capt. C. L. Gager had 
made a propeller out of the old steamboat General 
Porter. Between Gager and McGee an old feud 
existed. A few miles below Mackinaw the Rochester 
overhauled the Porter^ and when passing her McGee 
blew his whistle persistently and defiantly. The steam- 
boat landed at Mackinaw, as also did the proj^eller. 
Being unaware that McGee was engiueer of the Pocli- 
ester, Gager appeared at the steamboat dock and loudly 
demanded to be shown the man who " squawked that 
thing at him." McGee was prompt in leaping on the 
wharf and shouting, " Take a look at me ! " Then 
came a resolute intervention of mutual friends pre- 
venting war between two stalwart men. And thus 
was demonstrated the utility of the steam-whistle and 
its inauguration on the Great Lakes without bloodshed. 

In general, early lake steamboats were officered by 
sailors who gained their experience on the fleet of sailing- 
vessels navigating Lake Erie prior to the advent of the 



84 MODERN ANTIQUITIES. 

steamboat. A notable exception occurred at the out- 
set, when Captain Fish was imported from the North 
River to command the Walk-in-the- Water. When 
navigating Lake Erie, Captain Fish encountered, to 
him, a novel experience. During a storm on the lake. 
Captain Fish became seasick — utterly demoralized — 
when passengers and crew insisted that mate Davis 
should assume command of the vessel. This being- 
done, the steamboat was safely navigated through the 
storm ; and for the remainder of the season it was 
Captain Davis, while Captain Fish returned to swim 
in the more placid waters surrounding Manhattan 
Island. Thereafter, as a rule, lake steamboats were 
commanded by lake sailors. 

Later, however, a more flagrant case occurred which 
aroused the indignation of lake shipmasters. About 
1846, Capt. Henry Randall sold the steamboat Wis- 
consin to William Chard, a gentleman largely engaged 
in canal transportation. Mr. Chard was an expert in 
canal navigation, but in no sense a lake navigator. 
Mr. Chard, firstly, changed the orthography of the 
name of the boat to Wishonsan^ and then, as a busi- 
ness proposition, assumed the command, and then the 
trouble commenced. A '' canaler " master of a lake 
steamboat, was an absurdity intolerable, and war was 
declared against Mr. Chard and his steamboat Wis- 
konsan. An emblematic war — a war of ridicule was 
diligently waged. In addition to the blowing of 
horns and shouting ''low bridge," canal harness and 



THE GREAT LAKES. 85 

wliiffletrees were run aloft on other boats when meet- 
ing the Wishoiisan. Steamboat agents were diligent 
in advising travelers that the master of the Wiskonsan 
was a landsman, a factor most potent in diverting 
patronage, and Mr. Chard concluded that business 
demanded a lake navigator for the master of his steam- 
boat, and the demand being supplied, hostilities ended 
and peace was restored. Mr. Chard was energetic in 
business and social in intercourse with all whom he met, 
and subsequently was popular in navigation circles. 

In 1852 the General Government assumed jurisdic- 
tion of the Great Lakes, when knowledge and experi- 
ence became indispensable for a commission to com- 
mand a lake vessel. 

The serious disasters occurring during the era of 
side-wheel steam-boating, in the main consisted of the 
burning of the Washington^ Erie and G. P. Griffith 
on Lake Erie and the Niagara and Sea Bird on Lake 
Michigan; the sinking by collision of the Atlantic and 
Chesapeake on Lake Erie, and the Lady Elgin on 
Lake Michigan ; the foundering of the Sunbeam on 
Lake Superior, and the Keystone State on Lake 
Huron. All of these casualties were attended with the 
loss of human life in a degree horrifying, unless that 
of the Chesapeake be the exception. 

The Washington^ in 1838, and the Erie^ in 1841, 
were burned when on an upward passage, both at the 
same point on the lake, off Silver Creek, thirty-five 
miles out of Buffalo. The steamboat Griffith was 



86 MODERN ANTIQUITIES. 

burned off Fairport, on an upward trip, her passengers 
and crew being driven overboard by the rapid spread- 
ing of the flames. Captain Roby and wife, clasped in 
each other's arms, thus met their death. In 1860 the 
steamboat Lady Elgiii^ in command of Capt. John 
Wilson, was running between the ports of Lake Michi- 
gan and Lake Superior. At Milwaukee she gave an 
evening excursion to the firemen of that city. The 
boat was crowded with men, women and children. The 
night was dark and misty, and the water was rough ; 
without warning a sailing vessel crashed into the 
steamer, then glanced off and was seen no more, while 
the boat, loaded with humanity, sank beneath the 
waters. When the boat sunk the hurricane deck 
floated in two sections, upon which officers of the 
sunken steamer placed many passengers. The shore 
was distant a mile or more, with the wind blowing on, 
towards which the rafts drifted. The one carrying- 
Captain Wilson reached the shore intact, but the other 
broke up in the breakers. To assist the women and 
children struggling in the angry surf. Captain Wilson 
rushed in, but the frantic sufferers seized hold of him 
in numbers, and he was drowned with them. Thus 
heroically perished Captain Jack Wilson, a brave and 
popular lake sailor. Three days later the steamboat 
North S,tai\ Capt. Ben Sweet, arrived at the Soo, 
bringing the sad news of the loss of the Lady Elgin. 
The veteran Captain Lundy was standing on the 
wharf. Captain Sweet locked arms with him, and the 



THE GREAT LAKES. 87 

two elderly men walked slowly in the direction of the 
hotel, where boarded the wife of Capt. Jack Wilson. 
Arm in arm they ascended the hotel stairs. At the 
top Captain Lundy halted, while Captain Sweet pro- 
ceeded to the door of Mrs. Wilson's apartment. The 
old sailor raised his arm to knock at the door, hesi- 
tated, and then withdrew, and said, " Lundy, I can't ! " 
Then the other old sailor essayed to perform the 
mournful errand, but also returned and said, " Sweet, 
I can't ! " Then the veterans of many battles with the 
elements slowly descended the stairs, while brushing 
aside watery particles, drops which would not have 
appeared in their eyes had they met grim Death face 
to face. These sturdy men could face a tempest of 
wind, hail and snow without wincing, but yielded when 
encountering a storm of misery about to engulf the 
wife of a brother sailor. They could brave the majes- 
tic power of the Great Lakes, but shrank from a con- 
test with human sorrow. Cherished by old friends 
are memories of Captains Wilson, Lundy and Sweet — 
their contemporaries who linger often recall their 
sterling character. 

But the mystery remained: What vessel collided 
with the Lady Elgin f 

After a time it was discovered that the schooner 
Augusta had disappeared from the lakes, no one knew 
where. After a further time, some six years there- 
after, came from the sea-board a strange vessel named 
Col. Cook, and engaged in carrying iron ore from 



88 MODERN ANTIQUITIES. 

Marquette to Cleveland. On one occasion, at Cleve- 
land, the Col. Cook was at Lafrinier's ship-yard for 
repairs. While undergoing such rei3airs the foreman 
of the yard discovered that the construction of the 
supposed foreign-built vessel was his own work ; and, 
furthermore, that she was no other than the missing 
schooner Augusta^ which ran down the steamboat 
Lady Elgin. But her inhuman absconding crew were 
not accounted for. 

The Col. Cooh had made six voyages across the 
Atlantic in the lumber trade. Her hulk is now a tow- 
barge on the Great Lakes in the lumber trade. Dur- 
ing the vigils of the night out on the waters, let her 
crew keep a sharp lookout for the ghostly specters, 
some two hundred in number, that hover over the craft 
of ghastly memory. 

On the night of the 17th of August, 1864, the 
large hotel at Ontonagon, Lake Superior, was illumi- 
nated throuo^hout its three stories. Amono' the o'uests 
were a number of men from the sea-board cities, 
interested in the rich copper mines in that vicinity. 
Associated with them were mining experts and busi- 
ness men of the Lake Superior region — in all, a party 
of about thirty bright men. Their business at Ontona- 
gon for the time was closed. The steamboat Sunbeam 
was expected to arrive during the night, on which the 
party was to take passage down the lake. All were 
in good spirits, for the viands furnished at the hotel 
were noted for their excellence, and this was one of 



THE GREAT LAKES. 89 

the gala nights of the booming era of Ontonagon. 
During the night the lights of the Sunbeam were 
sighted, the prepared bonfire on the beach was lighted, 
and soon after the steamboat was anchored off shore. 
At daybreak all passengers were on board, and the 
boat started on her passage down the lake, and six 
hours later the steamboat Sunheain^ and every soul on 
board, were at the bottom of Lake Superior, entombed 
under one hundred fathoms of the coldest lake water 
on the globe, and where each and every victim yet 
remains. There is no resurrection there — the water 
of Lake Superior never gives up its dead. 

On that fatal day an immense vacuous space must 
have suddenly occurred in the southeast. Never before 
or since has the air been known to move over Lake 
Superior with equal velocity. The frail steamboat 
Sunheam was wholly unequal to the contest. To 
safely encounter such a tempest her unfortunate pas- 
sengers and crew might as well have taken passage on 
a hoop-skirt. 

To counteract the solemnity of melancholy reading, 
a humorous incident of the navigation of Lake Supe- 
rior is here related. 

Prior to the opening of the Soo Canal the propellers 
Manhattan and Monticello were conveyed overland to 
Lake Superior. On a day when no other boats were 
on the lake, in day-time and clear weather, when four 
miles off shore, where the lake is one hundred and 
fifty miles wide, they met and collided. Both boats 



90 



MODERN ANTIQUITIES. 



were compelled to make for the shore, where their 
wrecks still remain buried in the sand. This rare feat 
was a consolation to canal boatmen — that they were 
not classed as mariners. 

In 1841, the first propeller steamer known to the 
lakes, was, under the auspices of the inventor of the 




The Propeller Vandalia — 1842. 

First Propeller on the Lakes. 



screw-wheel. Captain Ericsson, built at Oswego, by 
Capt. James Van Cleve. Prior to the Oswego boat, a 
propeller had been built at New York, and when ex- 
amining that vessel. Captain Van Cleve entered into 
an arrangement with the inventor to build a propeller 
for the lakes, and to exhibit her at the principal lake 
ports — hence the Vandalia^ the original lake propeller. 



THE GREAT LAKES. 91 

Under the command of Capt. Rufus Hawkins, the 
Vandalia made a trial trip on Lake Ontario, Novem- 
ber, 1841, and the working of the screw-wheel was 
pronounced a success. 

In May, 1842, the Vandalia made the passage of 
the Welland Canal to Lake Erie, and at Buffalo was 
inspected with curiosity and interest by lake trans- 
porters and navigators, her advantages being explained 
by Captain Ericsson in person. Then, by the Hollis- 
ters, owners of the steamboats St. Louis and San- 
dusTcy^ an arrangement was made to build two pro- 
pellers, and the next season appeared in commission 
the propeller Hercules^ Capt. F. S. Wheeler, and 
the Sampson^ Capt. Amos Pratt, and both were placed 
as freighters in trade with Lake Michigan ports. 
In 1844 appeared another propeller, constructed by 
the Hollisters — the upper cabin passenger propeller 
Princeton., commanded by Capt. Amos Pratt. Com- 
paratively, the Princeton was a modern constructed 
vessel, and a success. But, as a rule, lake navigators 
did not readily take to the propeller, and not until the 
middle fifties, when the railroads had paralleled the 
shores of the lakes, and relegated into inactivity the 
side-wheel passenger steamer, did the propeller come 
into universal use on the lakes. 

The prejudice against the propeller was well illus- 
trated when Capt. Fred S. Miller refused one as a 
gift. For several seasons F. S. Miller had sailed as 
mate with Capt. Levi Allen, while nursing the hope 



92 MODERN ANTIQUITIES. 

that his thrifty brother, Capt. W. T. Miller, would 
acquire the requisite interest in some side-wheeler to 
make him the master thereof. About 1846, Capt. W. 
T. Miller became possessed of a propeller, when he 
said to his brother Fred, that he could take and run 
her on his own account. But the generous offer was 
promptly declined, and in a manner emphatic. " I 
want to say to you. Captain Miller, that I am mate of 
the steamboat Niagara^ and don't propose to abandon 
that position to be master of a thing like that." For 
several years thereafter, "I want to say to you, Cap- 
tain Miller," was an expression frequent among lake 
men, until worn out. However, the marked superiority 
of the propeller for deep water navigation was soon 
acknowledged throughout the civilized world. 

Fleets of grain and lumber-laden sail vessels began 
to make the passage of the straits, connecting Lakes 
Huron and Erie, in the early forties. The delays in- 
cident to such passages, caused by adverse winds, sug- 
gested a system of towing between the lakes, and for 
such purpose the small side-wheel steamboats, then 
plentiful, were utilized for towing through the rivers 
Detroit and St. Clair. 

In the meantime the screw-v/heel had demonstrated 
its superior power, and the more wieldy boat, with 
power applied under the stern, hence the screw-wheel 
tug-boat — now universal in waters of civilization. 

Harbor towing, as an industry, was not inaugurated 
under favorable auspices, as at first its progress was 



THE GREAT LAKES. \)6 

slow. When in port vessel men were chary of a tug, 
fearing damage to themselves, or of causing it to 
others when moving about with their lines aboard. 
When becalmed on the lake, they were glad to be 
towed to the entrance of the harbor, where they would 
drop the tug, run their lines and warp the vessel to 
the dock or elevator. The first lake harbor towing 
was in Buffalo Creek, in 1852. During the winter of 
1851-2, four screw-wheel tug-boats were under con- 
struction at Buffalo, all of which were placed in com- 
mission during the season of 1852. First to appear 
was the George W. Tifft, in June, owned by Elias 
and Thomas Simms, the latter her navigator. Length, 
75 feet ; beam, 16 feet ; depth, 7 feet. 

However, the Tifft was not the original screw-wheel 
tug-boat of the lakes. In 1851, the propeller tug 
Franklin was built at Albany, and upon the opening 
of the Erie Canal, in the spring of 1852, she made the 
passage of the canal to Buffalo, arriving there prior to 
the first of June, and at once commenced towing in 
Buffalo Creek, two weeks prior to the appearance of 
the George W. Tifft. 

To skillfully manage a tug-boat in close quarters 
requires the hand and brain of an expert. Prompt 
action and a level head alone will often prevent dis- 
aster. The law makes the operator liable in cases of 
malpractice. 

The tug-boat is distinguished as a life and property 
saver. Often has it given timely aid in places diffi- 



94 MODERN ANTIQUITIES. 

cult and dangerous — when a life was rescued, or prop- 
erty saved from loss. The tug-boat captain is honored 
by the supposition that he and his boat are equal to 
any emergency, and visually they fill the bill. 

An Episode. 

In 1866, the tug-boat Joe D. Dudley was stationed 
at Marquette. When November came, the Soo River 
tugs, in order to share a rush of business on the river 
St. Clair, abandoned the late fleet of Lake Superior. 
Vessels had to make their way to Lake Huron the best 
they could. The ore shippers at Marquette gave in- 
ducement for the Dudley to go to the Soo and tow the 
abandoned vessels through the river to Lake Huron. 
December came when all but two of the fleet had 
passed down — the schooners Reindeer and William 
Shupe being still above the canal. On the third day 
of December the Dudley passed up the river to the 
canal in the midst of a violent storm of wind and 
snow, continuous for forty-eight hours. On the early 
morning of the fifth the Dudley left the canal in 
search of the belated vessels, with migivings as to their 
fate. However, when rounding Point Aux Pins, the 
schooners were sighted, rolling at their anchors below 
Point Iroquois. The tug went alongside of the Shupe 
and found her crew heaving up anchors while treading 
a coating of ice overspreading the deck of the vessel 
— in fact, all above water-line was ice-bound. Then 
the tug pointed for the lleindeer^ with a view of tail- 



THE GREAT LAKES. 95 

ing her to the Shupe. The little schooner presented 
a weird scene of frigid desolation. There she hung to 
her cables, responding to the roll of a heavy sea, and 
without a sail lowered — all hanging in frozen tatters. 
All in sight was ice-bound, and not a human soul in 
evidence, and the sounding of the whistle for a time 
failed to produce life. The roll of the vessel made 
the boarding thereof extremely difficult. Finally a 
man was placed aboard, just as a human head peered 
above the cabin hatchway — the most unkempt head 
imaginable— the head of Capt. Redmond Rider, and 
which gave voice inquisitively, "What do you want?" 
Darkness covered the waters when the schooners were 
towed into the canal, a well-remembered day of toil- 
some work for the crews of vessels and tug. On De- 
cember 6th the Shiq^e was towed to Lake Huron, 
while the Reindeer remained at the Soo, presumably 
for the winter. There new sails were made, when the 
vessel was sailed to Detroit, directed by an intrepid 
man who knew not fear. 

Five years later, Redmond Rider, with his command, 
the propeller R. G. Cohurn^ went to the bottom of 
Lake Huron, there to join his brother, who had pre- 
ceeded him a couple of years to a watery sepulcher in 
the same section of the lake, and where they are to- 
gether entombed under forty fathoms of water. The 
Rider brothers were widely known among lake sailors, 
were considered typical seamen, noted for their intre- 
pidity and unostentatious demeanor. 



96 MODERN ANTIQUITIES. 



CHAPTER VIII. 



During the concluding year of the village era, Dib- 
dell Holt was publicly executed, November, 1831, for 
killing his wife, and his was the last public execution 
in Buffalo. On this occasion the gallows was erected 
at the junction of Genesee street and the Terrace. In 
Holt's case the fact was noted that he first came to 
Buffalo from a distance with the throng who came to 
witness the hanging of the three Thayers. Six years 
later he was the star performer in a like tragedy, pre- 
sented on the same stage, and to many who were of 
the same audience, marching in procession over the 
identical ground traversed by the famous culprits 
whose execution his curiosity to witness was the pre- 
cursor of his own doom. 

While in Buffalo, in 1825, Holt became impressed 
with the glowing prospects of the town, remaining there 
several days prospecting for a location. He returned 
to his home, married, and at once settled in Buffalo. 
Being possessed of a sum of money, he purchased a 
lot and store thereon, on the west side of Main, a few 
doors above Court street, in which he established a 
grocery, his residence being in the story above. During 
the first three years of his residence in Buffalo, Holt 
was considered a model husband, living happily with 



SKETCHES. 97 

his wife, but, contracting intemperate habits, he became 
sullen and morose, then cross and abusive to his wife. 
Her reproaches for his increasing intemperance often 
produced ruptures between them, when he would assure 
her that her days were numbered ; that she would 
never attend his funeral, and like assertions. The day 
before the murder he dismissed his clerk, and closed 
his store. His confession after conviction discloses 
that he went into the room where she was sitting; with 
their child in her arms, and while driving a nail in the 
wall near the ceiling, a miss-stroke caught his thumb, 
and at his outcry, caused by pain, she snickered, 
whereupon he struck her three blows on the head 
with the hammer, intending to kill her, which he did 
almost instantly. Holt then fled, meeting the ser- 
vant girl on the stairs, who gave alarm, and the fugi- 
tive was pursued to the outskirts of the village, where 
he was found secreted in a log and brush heap, where 
now is Day's Park, and placed in jail. When con- 
fronted with his victim, he said that the inquest was 
useless ceremony, that he killed his wife, and that she 
deserved killing. For committing the ghastly deed. 
Holt deserved greater punishment than he received. 

The locomotive first appeared in Buffalo in 1836, 
running to and from Niagara Falls. The next railroad 
to enter the town was the Buffalo and Attica, in 1842. 
Prior to the railroads, the four-horse stage coach ran 
out of the city on all routes. An old time advertise- 
ment reads thus : 



98 MODERN ANTIQUITIES. 

COACH LINES. 
The Pilot Mail Coach. 

Leaves Buffalo every evening, arriving at Geneva the first 
day, Utica the second, and Albany the third. 

The Diligence Coach. 
Leaves Buffalo every morning at 8 o'clock, arrives at Avon 
the first night, Auburn the second, Utica the third, and Albany 
the fourth. 

The Lewiston Coach. 
Via the Falls. Leaves Buffalo every morning at 6 o'clock, 
arriving at Lewiston 7.30 p. m. 

The Canada Coach. 

For the Falls. Leaves every morning at 8 o'clock, arriving 
at the Falls at Noon. Extras furnished on either side of the 
river at any hour. 

The Western Mail Coach. 
For Fredonia, Erie and Cleveland. Leaves Buffalo every 
morning at 5 o'clock. Baggage at risk of the owners. 

Bela D. Coe, and others. 
Buffalo, March, 1828. E. L. Stevenson, Agent. 

Such were the conveniences of travel out of Buffalo 
sixty years ago — four days in a stage to Albany, now 
six hours in a luxurious car, and many passengers are 
impatient if there be a half-hour's detention. And 
such is favored human nature. 



SKETCHES. 99 

Here is an advertisement published in a local news- 
paper of 1828: 

For Sale. — A farm in the immediate vicinity, one-lialf mile 
from tlie court-house, situated between two public roads, one of 
which will unquestionably be adopted as the Great National Road 
between Buffalo and Washington. Of the premises there are 
about fifty-three acres, clear and stumpless, and producing good 
crops. Thereon is a good house and barn, and as good a spring 
of water as any in the country, and also |700 worth of good post 
and rail fence. john G. Camp. 

Buffalo, Sept., 1828. 

The " farm " now comprises the realty bounded by 
Main, North, Delaware and Virginia streets. The 
spring of water referred to was located on the south- 
west corner of the tract, and is yet in evidence in the 
rear of the line of dwellings on Delaware avenue and 
Virginia street, covered by a dilapidated old frame- 
work. Around this spring, under the shade of 
majestic elms, were wont to camp the Indians of the 
vicinity, even unto the time of the advent of the city. 

In 1828 there appeared at New York City a con- 
spicuous character named Sam Patch, who subse- 
quently became notorious in Buffalo and throughout 
Western New York. Sam possessed an inordinate 
desire for public notoriety, and, to gain such distinc- 
tion, he risked life and limb in jumping from the mast- 
heads of anchored ships into the waters of the North 
River. Such exploits of Sam Patch aroused the covet- 
iveness of public purveyors who profit by the assem- 



100 MODERN ANTIQUITIES. 

blage of people en masse,, prominently the hotel and 
shop-keepers at Niagara Falls. 

In September, 1829, it was announced far and wide 
that Sam Patch would jump the Niagara Falls, and 
then throughout the surrounding country the scheme 
was the general topic of conversation, the many incred- 
ulous scoffing at its absurdity. That Sam Patch had 
jumped from a height into the still waters of the 
North River was admitted, but that he would attempt 
a dive into the maelstrom of Niagara was considered 
an absurdity. This pronounced skepticism brought 
forth from the illustrious scapegrace his historic utter- 
ence: "Some things can be done as well as others." 
This homely speech became proverbial and was quoted 
universally for years thereafter. However, on October 
6, 1829, Sam Patch, from a staging projecting from 
the Biddle staircase, leaped into the comparatively still 
waters below. After a drop of 125 feet through the 
air he disappeared from view, but in due time appeared 
at the surface and was picked up uninjured, the hero 
of the hour and occasion. 

On the platform, before making the leap, Sam mani- 
fested his frivolous egotism by hilariously singing a 
ribald verse : 

"I wish I were in Buffalo, 
Good friends along Avith me, 
I'd call for liquors plenty — 

Have flowing bowls on ever side ; 
Hard fortune never grieved me — 

I am young and the world is wide." 



SKETCHES. 101 

Then placing to his lips a flask of rum he took a 
deep draught, and then added a couplet to his singing : 

"Good liquor in a poor man's house 
Is a pleasing thing to view." 

And then he jumped, maintaining good posture 
while in descent. 

There is a legend that Sam Patch repeated his 
jump at the Falls, drawing a larger crowd of witnesses 
than on the first occasion. However, adhering to his 
pronunciamento that " some things can be done as 
well as others," it was soon after announced that Sam 
would jump the Genesee Falls at Rochester, which he 
did, and at the same time jumped into eternity. From 
a platform elevated thirty feet above the brink of the 
cataract he leaped into the waters below, never again 
to rise in life. He was hilariously drunk, and in his 
descent he swung his arms wildly. When his body 
was found it was noted that both shoulder-joints were 
dislocated, the effect of striking the water with arms 
extended. Such was the rise and fall of the original 
of the present race of Steve Brodies. 

At the close of 1831 Buffalo was a thriving village 
of nine thousand inhabitants, with the rapidly increas- 
ing commerce of Lake Erie promoting its growth. 
That a community of pioneers, impoverished by war 
and burdened with debt, contracted in re-establishing 
their homes despoiled in the conflict — the situation in 
1820 — should within the decade develop a frontier 



102 MODERN ANTIQUITIES. 

hamlet into an important commercial city was an 
achievement without a parallel — a consummation made 
possible through the perseverance, spirit and energy of 
its citizens. Granger, Forward, Townsend, Wilkeson, 
Coit, Allen, Tracy, Johnson, Walden, Pratt, Chapin, 
Marshall, Trowbridge, Austin, Potter, Miller, Barton, 
Barker, Bennett and Heacock, were an irresistible 
force in promoting public enterprise. In April, 1832, 
the important village became an ambitious young city. 

1815. 

"Here, on these ashes," the forefathers cried, 
"We'll now build a temple of trade ; " 

"Bravo !" cried Lake Erie, swelling with pride, 
"I'll cheerily join the parade." 

1832. 

The Pioneers wrought, their work was done. 

Their temple was wondrous fair ; 
The City entered and stood on the pedestal stone. 

And waved her cap high in the air. 

From the beginning Buffalonians have ever been 
confidently enthusiastic in their predictions of an im- 
portant future for their village and city. By its 
founders the infant city was christened with sublime 
confidence that wealth and importance awaited its 
early future. The predictions then made were, at the 
time, considered illusionary, born of unwonted enthu- 
siasm, by other communities. At this advanced period 
they read like the profound statements of one who had. 



SKETCHES. 103 

by Divine power, been entrusted with a foresight of 
the future. Appended is the writing of one of the 
founders of the city: 

The "go-ahead" of the brave and eccentric Crockett, has be- 
come the watchword of the age. In every department of 
civilized life, in literature, in science, in mechanical arts, in the 
labors of the field, all seem to listen with delight to this spirit- 
stirring talisman, and rush onward, with redoubled energy, to 
wealth and greatness. The march of mind is onward ; our means 
of education are enlarging and extending their enlightening 
influences over the land ; new discoveries are daily adding to the 
legacy of former times ; the power of machinery is applied to 
almost every purpose of public utility or private enterprise in 
which speed is attained or labor performed — steamboats capable 
of contending with winds and tide, railroads which will soon 
enable the home-bred farmer to make the tour of the state in 
almost the time it takes to traverse his own domain. 

Within the past fifty years mighty changes have been wrought 
in the relative importance and geographical extent of these 
United States — New England, once the nucleus around which 
gathered the hopes of our infant country — the center of strength 
and power, to whose arm the feeble branches of this family of 
republics looked for protection . But the scene is changed. The 
western world has been explored, new states have arisen as if by 
magic, and every year adds thousands to the throngs who have 
left their fatherland to rear their altars amidst the charms of the 
western wilderness. 

The great channel of communication between the Eastern and 
Western States is fixed by Nature through the chain of lakes 
forming the division between the United States and the British 
possessions on the north. The Erie Canal affords a safe, easy, 
expeditious and cheap mode of travel, and for conveying heavy 
merchandise, and which forever must remain the principal thor- 
oughfare. While goods can be shipped in New York and safely 
landed in Chicago in twelve days with only two re-shipments, it 



104 MODERN ANTIQUITIES. 

is not to be considered that merchants will seek other channels. 
With these advantages and prospects in view, the people of Buf- 
falo may well be proud of their home, proud of the fame already 
acquired of their infant city. It has no rival — it can have none. 
Cities west of us may arise to wealth and importance, but they 
will be our tributaries ; their growth our growth, their greatness 
our greatness — all combined furnish a fit epitome of the materials 
which are to make Buffalo one of the grandest cities in the 
Union. In the west lies a country destined to be a land of cities 
— a country of lakes and rivers, whose navigable waters traverse 
half the continent, and teeming with every agricultural produc- 
tion. The abundance of these must pass through our hands on 
its way to the sea- board, while the luxuries of the Old World 
will center here, thus rendering Buffalo what it may ever claim 
to be — the Great National Exchange. 

But few of the present people of Buffalo are aware 
that a massive monument to Commodore Perry came 
very near being erected on the Terrace, where now 
stands the Liberty Pole. In 1832 the elated citizens 
of the newly incorporated city, organized a Monu- 
ment Association, and a committee was appointed to 
erect in Buffalo a monument to Commodore Perry, 
the expense thereof to be supplied by popular sub- 
scription. The promises to pay were numerous and 
ample for the completion of the work, and the com- 
mittee contracted for its construction in 1836; but 
the financial ruin of 1837 prevented the consummation 
of the enterprise, and in lieu thereof the Liberty Pole 
of 1838 was erected. The memorial was decorated 
with a representation of the proi30sed structure, and 
read as follows: 



SKETCHES. 105 

This monument, to be erected by the citizens of Buffalo in 
honor of the late Com. Oliver Hazard Perry, is to be one hundred 
feet high, surmounted by a colossal statue of Perry fifteen feet in 
height. On the sides of the pedestal, which is thirty-four feet 
square, are to be sculptured relieves, representing the battle of 
Lake Erie, and other prominent events in the life of the hero. 
The whole structure will be of American white marble, and cost 
$75,000. Its style will be Grecian. Its builders are Frazee and 
Launits, of the City of New York. 

The committee comprised the following citizens : 

Stephen Champlin, U. S. N., Chairman. 

Reuben B. Heacock, Benjamin Caryl, 

Samuel Wilkeson, John W. Clark, 

Jacob A. Barker, Pierre A. Barker, 

Roswell W. Haskins, Benjamin Rathbun, 

James T. Homans, U, S. N., Alanson Palmer. 
Henry R. Stagg, 

The original Eagle Street Theatre was erected in 
1835, and opened to the public July 20th of that year. 
It stood midway of the block between Main and Wash- 
ington streets, its front entrance being where now 
is the Eagle street entrance to the Hotel Iroquois. 
The side spaces, running to Main and Washington 
streets, were inclosed with a high-board fence. The 
inclosure on the Washington street side was occupied 
by the gas factory, where gas for the illumination of 
the house was manufactured — the first in Buffalo. 
When opened, the Buffalo theatre, in construction 
and appointment, was unsurpassed by any like in- 
stitution in the country. Appended is its original 
announcement : 



106 MODERN ANTIQUITIES. 

EAGLE STREET THEATRE. 
A. Brisbane, Proprietor. 
Dean & McKinney, Lessees and Managers. 
This splendid house will be opened July 20, 1835. The 
capacity of the building is exceeded by few in the L^nion. There 
are four tiers of boxes and a spacious pit, all furnished with com- 
fortable seats ; the three lower tiers with backs to the seats. The 
scenery and embellishments are of a style not surpassed by any 
theatre in the world. The whole is lighted by olefiant gas, man- 
ufactured on the premises. The managers are well known in 
Buffalo, and their efforts will be exerted to retain the kindness 
they have always experienced at the hands of the public. Per- 
formances every week-day night during the season. 

The " season " was during the months of lake navi- 
gation. When navigation closed the theatre did 
likewise for the winter months. 

The pit was consigned by the managers to the town 
boys — not the bad boys, but the good boys, who didn't 
die young — as their exclusive domain, and where they 
congregated nightly, at twenty-five cents per head, to 
witness Dan Marble in his masterly presentation of the 
" Game Cock in the Wilderness," and other specialties, 
not forgetting occasions when Edwin Forrest, supported 
by Josephine Clifton, was enacting Shakespearian 
tragedies. Mr. Dean was quite popular with the 
young people, with whom he maintained a genial famil- 
iarity. During a week of Forrest and Miss Clifton, 
the swells in the boxes leveled opera-glasses upon the 
stage, a proceeding novel to the boys in the pit, they 
considering the application of a spy-glass at such short 
range too silly for anything. 







The Original Eagle Street Theatre — 1835. 



108 MODERN ANTIQUITIES. 

On Franklin above Chippewa street there lived a 
Dutch family named Snyder, in whose garden were a 
growth of seed cucumbers, sizeable and yellow, which, 
by boring lengthwise and connecting a pair of them, 
contrived a fair imitation of an opera-glass — good 
enough for four boys who entered the pit with such 
imitations concealed under their coats. 

During a scene when the glasses were focused upon 
the stage from the lower tier, the imitations were pro- 
duced and focused in burlesque. Strange enough, this 
quietly-conducted proceeding aroused a violent disturb- 
ance among the hoodlums in the gallery — continuous 
until it caused the premature dropping of the curtain. 
Whereupon, Mr. Dean appeared at the foot-lights, his 
appearance receiving the clapping of hands from the 
pit. But the usual smile did not beam on the counte- 
nance of Mr. Dean, it having an earnest cast. Mr. 
Dean began talking to the pit as a whole, reminding 
the boys of his friendly action in providing for their 
amusement and comfort, and then, fixing his eyes on 
the culprits sitting in a row, requested them to lay 
aside the disturbing elements that the performance 
might proceed without interruption. The kindly man- 
ner of Mr. Dean subdued the boys unto contrition, 
whereupon the guilty cucumbers were cast aside and 
order was resumed. 

Performance at the theatre was suspended during 
the close of lake navigation, when the pit would be 
floored over, and which, with the stage, formed a com- 



SKETCHES. 109 

modious dancing arena. Here public balls were held 
during the winter season. On Franklin street resided 
a family named Postle, whose daughters were noted 
for their comeliness, and also as expert dancers, and 
who were frequent in attendance at the balls. The 
late Judge Talcott, then active, was usual in attend- 
ance — fond of the recreation. 

At the time was clandestinely published The, Old 
Corporal^ a weekly journal, 7 by 9 in size, which on 
the street met with ready sale, its columns giving high- 
wrought reports of scenes at the balls, and which, on 
an occasion, included the verse : 

"What Tall-cuts he made when attempting to wing, 
And an Apostle coukl waltz as if Fanny had lent her — 
Her heels for the evening to whirl in the ring." 

The Old Corporal was the sensation of the town, 
until its publishers were smoked out — a brace of prin- 
ters engaged on the Express. The veteran dispenser 
of billiards, Darwin A. Slaght, was then an expert typo, 
and a co-perpetrator. His present sedate presentment 
denies the impeachment. Perish the thought! 

In the fall of 1839, a full year prior to the election, 
a Whig National Convention assembled at Harrisburg, 
Pa., and nominated presidential candidates: William 
Henry Harrison, for President, and John Tyler, for 
Vice-President. In May, 1840, a Democratic National 
Convention convened at Baltimore, Md., where Martin 
Van Buren was nominated for re-election as President. 
Subsequently the Democratic National Committee 



110 MODERN ANTIQUITIES. 

placed Richard M. Johnson on their ticket for Vice- 
President, and then the tronble commenced — the log- 
cabin, hard-cider, coon-skin campaign for Tippecanoe 
and Tyler too — and the fur flew and the liquid flowed 
until the closing of the polls in November. 

It was really a picnic campaign, a season of festivity, 
revelry and song, whereby General Harrison was virtu- 
ally sung into the White House. Apparently, the 
chief issue involved was the oft-repeated inquiry : 
"' What has caused this great commotion — motion — 
motion — the country through ? " and which the singers 
themselves invariably answered in another line : " It is 
the ball a rolling on for Tippecanoe and Tyler too ; " 
and to which in gracious assurance to their opponents 
they added : " And with them we'll beat little Van — 
Van, Van is a used-up man." The song was universal, 
like marching through Georgia, sung by marching 
thousands of men, women and children. The center of 
gravity for the Whig campaigners of Buffalo was the 
" Log Cabin," located for the time on the then vacant 
lot on the northeast corner of Main and Eagle streets. 
The cabin was a typical back-woods structure, the ex- 
terior decorated with grub-hoes, brush-hooks, ox-yokes, 
hanging scythes, gourds, crooked-necked squashes, 
bunches of corn-in-the-ear, coon-skins nailed on flesh- 
side out, and other articles traditional to pioneer in- 
dustry. At the Log Cabin open house to all comers 
was maintained during the canvass — barrels of cider 
constantly on tap, and open barrels of apples, gratis to 



112 MODERN ANTIQUITIES. 

all who would join the chorus. We boys would gather 
at the cabin to hear the great crowd of men there 
assembled sing: 

"The beautiful girls, God bless their souls — 
Souls — souls — the country through ; 
They will to a man do all they can 
For Tippecanoe and Tyler too." 

The incongruity in the third line impressed the 
verse upon my youthful simplicity, permanent in mem- 
ory for the half century and more intervening. 

The Buffalo Historical Society preserves a faithful 
presentment of the historic Log Cabin. 

In point of numbers in attendance, and in its varied 
and unique features, the Whig Mass Meeting at Buf- 
falo, November 7, 1840, was the most notable political 
gathering that ever before assembled in Western New 
York. The celebration of the " Battle of the Thames," 
with their candidate the alleged hero, brought to 
Buffalo nearly all the adult male jjopulation of the 
surrounding country. Thousands came in steamboat- 
loads from the southern borders of Lake Erie. Buffalo, 
then a presumptive little city, tripled its population in 
a day, and its territory was not sufficient to contain the 
long processions marching behind bands of music, 
extending into the adjoining towns of Black Rock and 
Cheektowaga. The common rendezvous and rostrums 
for the meeting were on the commons south of High 
street, where now are rows of residences on upper Oak, 
Elm and Michigan streets. Thomas C. Love was 



SKETCHES. 113 

president of the day, assisted by numerous vice-presi- 
dents, among- whom were Seth C. Hawley, Edwin 
Hurlbut, Daniel Bowen, Clark Robinson, C. C. Had- 
dock and Warren Granger. Dr. Haddock was ap- 
pointed Postmaster of Buffalo the following year. 
In 1849, when performing his duty as chairman of the 
Board of Health, he was stricken with cholera, then 
epidemic in Buffalo, and died. Dr. Haddock was an 
estimable citizen, public-spirited and enterprising, and 
his untimely death was universally regretted. 

At daybreak, on a Fourth of July morning in the 
early forties, the writer, with other boys, was hasten- 
ing down-town, to Court House Square (Lafayette 
Park), there to celebrate by extracting all the noise 
possible from the festive firecracker. When passing 
through Mohawk street to Washington street, on the 
sidewalk in front of the Congregational Church, we 
saw two negroes engaged in a loud quarrel. As we 
approached one of them stabbed the other with a 
dirk-knife, the blade penetrating his heart. The victim 
dropped to the sidewalk, over which his blood streamed 
to the gutter. This was the murder of James Massey 
by John Davis, for which Davis was hanged in the 
yard of the old jail, a stone's throw from the scene of 
his crime, and simultaneously from the scaffold with 
McElroy, who murdered Rapp, the German farmer, in 
the town of Boston. 

The first cross-walk laid in Buffalo was across Main 
street, midway between the Terrace and Seneca, in 



114 MODERN ANTIQUITIES. 

1828, by Josiah Beardsley. The first pavement was 
laid in 18 86, on Main corner of Erie street, Benjamin 
Ratlibun ordering it laid as a sample. It consisted of 
wooden blocks, nine inches square, which extended 
up about half-way across Erie street and half-way 
across Main street. This block of pavement was for 
several years thereafter an oasis in a sea of mud, prev- 
alent during spring and fall. 

Older citizens of Buffalo will recall the municipal 
sun-dial, erected on Main street, west side, between 
Church and Niagara streets. It was a structure diffi- 
cult to describe, looking more like a huge inverted 
plow than anything else, and not much like that. 
The thing was daubed over with hieroglyphics, as 
if of Egyptian origin, lined with marks and counter- 
marks, to allow the sun to cast shades and reveal the 
hour of day to the astronomically educated. It was 
of but little use to them, and of no use whatever to 
anyone else. However, it was the source of amuse- 
ment to many, being subjected to the jests of the fun- 
makers of the town at the expense of the Board of 
Aldermen, who ordered its construction at the cost of 
the tax-payers to the amount of several hundred dol- 
lars. It had not been in place a week before the 
all-around wag, Fred Emmons, had a farmer's load of 
ha}^ alongside to be weighed at a reduced price. Fred 
made application to be appointed Keeper of the Sun 
Dial, unrolling before the aldermen in session a " uni- 
versal petition," both sides filled with names, consisting 



SKETCHES. 115 

of the city directory, the leaves cut out and connected 
lengthwise. His memorial promised that over the dial 
would be erected a shed to protect it from the sun! 
Finally, under the darkness of night, the " what-was-it " 
escaped, probably, aided by its projectors. The His- 
torical Society should endeavor to discover its hiding- 
place. It has nothing more facetiously or curiously 
historic. 

" Not since the flood," was an expression often used 
by Buffalonians when citing a time remote. Not to 
the down-pour of Scripture did they refer, but to the 
disastrous inflow of the waters of Lake Erie upon the 
lower lands of Buffalo, October 18, 1844. To those 
participating in these historic events, the local flood 
was the less considerate, giving no warning to its vic- 
tims, but instead an unheralded avalanche of waters 
came upon a sleeping community, the howling tempest 
arousing them from their slumbers like the sound of a 
fire-bell at night. For three days previous to the 
flood of waters, a northeast wind had been continuous, 
driving the waters of the lake upwards, when the wind 
suddenly shifted to the opposite direction with tre- 
mendous force, bringing with it a flood of waters to 
the foot of the lake, greater than ever before or since 
known, inundating the lower districts of Buft'alo, de- 
molishing scores of dwellings and other buildings, 
spreading ruin along the harbor front, playing havoc 
with the shipping, and causing great destruction of life. 
Not until the night of the 19th did the gale abate its 



116 MODERN ANTIQUITIES. 

velocity, and the waters recede. The rise of water can 
be imao-ined from the fact that before the blow the 
steamboat Columhus was aground in the river at the 
foot of Indiana street, and when the waters receded 
the steamboat was left behind on Ohio street. 

The adult male population of the city were active 
in the rescue of the imperiled and providing relief for 
the suffering during the early morning and through 
the day. The municipal hall over the Terrace Market 
was thronged with agonized people scanning bodies 
of the drowned as they were brought in, fearfully 
expectant of discovering missing friends whom they 
hoped might be somewhere in life. A like scene was 
at the court-house, where the bodies of the dead lay 
in rows awaiting identification. There strong men 
were moaning over the inanimate bodies of wives 
and children, while mothers and children were weep- 
ino' over the dead bodies of male members of their 
families. 

In the memory of the writer the arrival of that ter- 
rific first blast of wind remains vivid. He was sleeping 
in the upper room of a house then and now standing 
on North Main street, in a room comprising the length 
and breadth of the front portion of the house. The 
first blast carried the sash of the west end window 
bodily against the east wall of the room near the head 
of the bed, shattering the glass into a thousand frag- 
ments. He has ever since been unable to recall his 
sensation on being thus violently awakened, other than 



SKETCHES. 117 

a vague realization of kingdom come — something of 
that import. 

Men who saw the initial wave invade lower Main 
and Commercial streets, stated that it rolled up and 
poured into the canal with roaring sound. At the 
corner of Main and Ohio streets there was a depth of 
six feet of water, and of four feet at Exchange and 
Michigan streets. All territory on the level of outer 
Exchange street was alike inundated. Many harbor 
craft were left distant from their element when the 
waters receded. The flat lands southeast of the city 
were strewn with wreckage. For the second time 
the steamboats Columbus and Chcmtauqua required 
launching into the waters of the lake. Published 
details told of many providential escapes and timely 
rescues. Over the river near the ship-yard were two 
families, each consisting of parents and one child, liv- 
ing in houses adjoining. To escape the rising waters, 
both families took refuge on the roof of the stancher 
building, where they saw the other crumble and float 
away with all it contained. Soon after the house on 
which they were perched collapsed and floated off with 
the flood, the six human souls clinging to the floating 
roof. Not until seven o'clock that morning were they 
taken off their raft by i-escuers in yawl-boats, and after 
floating more than a mile away on a frail float amid 
the rush of waters and howling tempest. 

M. W. Dayton, brother of the ex-mayor, with his 
family, resided in a cottage on South Division street, 



118 MODERN ANTIQUITIES. 

his house standing alongside of a new three-story brick 
structure then under construction. Becoming alarmed 
at the rattling of falling deb7ns upon the roof of his 
house, Mr. Dayton aroused his family to take them 
to a place of safety. Just as they passed out the 
front gate, the brick wall fell upon and crushed the 
cottage. 

A. S. Carpenter and family were taken into a boat 
from the garret window of their dwelling on Jackson 
street in the early morning, just in time to save them 
from a collapsed building and floating wreckage. The 
evening before the great blow, the steamboats Saint 
Louis, Robert Fulton, Juliet Palmer, Chautauqua, 
and Indian Queen, left Buffalo with their usual com- 
plement of passengers. The Saint Louis encountered 
the tempest abreast of Dunkirk, and when essaying 
to breast it, broke her shaft, and, paying into the 
troughs of the sea, four men were washed overboard 
and lost. Aided by a stay-sail and jib, the steamer 
drifted before the wind and was carried down Niagara 
River, when Captain Haggart, with his ferry boat, 
came and assisted the disabled steamer to a landing at 
the foot of Ferry street. 

After having three people washed overboard, the 
steamboat Rohert Fulton was piled upon the beach 
above Stony Point. The Chautauqua was driven 
high and dry on the sand beach at the foot of 
Hudson street. 



SKETCHES. 119 

The Indian Queen, a bonnie little steamboat, was 
the only one of the outgoing fleet that succeeded in 
making Buffalo harbor on their return. Like a hog 
in a mire, she came wallowing in the huge seas directly 
to its entrance. 

The Julia Palmer, with her three hundred passen- 
gers, was blown helplessly down the lake to a point in 
the bay opposite the foot of Main street, where her 
anchors held, and where she pitched and rolled all the 
live-long day in a manner fearful to behold. On the 
morning of the 20th, a relief boat assisted her into 
the harbor, greatly to the relief of her terrorized pas- 
sengers and worn-out crew. 

The steamboat Julia Palmer, a historic vessel, built 
by a historic citizen, at a historic period, and named 
for a historic Buffalo matron, lies imbedded in the 
sands of a Lake Superior beach. Peace to her ashes ! 



120 MODERN ANTIQUITIES. 



CHAPTER IX. 



It was an August day in 1849 ; Buffalo was over- 
sjiread with gloom, owing to the ravage of Asiatic 
cholera. An alarm of fire came from the First Ward. 
A factory building was burning away out Perry street. 
In good time Fulton Fire Company No. 3 came out of 
West Seneca street, wheeling downward into Main 
street, just in time to encounter Red Jacket No. 6, and 
then the trouble commenced — a run to the fire. All 
old volunteers will recall the wild clamor attendant 
upon such a contest between old-time fire companies ; 
even more exciting and picturesque than the galloping 
of horses through the streets of the present. On that 
occasion, it was a victory for No. 3 over their most 
active rivals in the department, and to them a cause 
for hilarious congratulation. 

When No. 3 reached the fire. Mayor Hiram Barton 
was there standing in an open carriage, having been 
on a visit to the locality on sanitary inspection. The 
rear yard was inclosed with a high board fence. 
The mayor shouted : " Foreman Reed, can your boys 
jump over that fence ? " " My boys can jump over 
anywhere, Mr. Mayor ! " was the reply of as good a 
fireman as was ever known to Buffalo. 



SKETCHES. 



121 



Then the pipemen were lifted to where they could 
grasp the top, and over the fence they went, and soon 
two streams were penetrating the rear openings of the 
burning building, while with the rest of the company 
it was, "shake her up, boys," until the little piano 
engine rocked like a jolly-boat in the surf. 

On the home march, it was evening twilight when 
No. 3 wheeled out of Perry into Main street, where, 
in full company, they " spread out," and all gave voice 
to the song of the marching firemen. On that occa- 
sion the verses wore chorused thus: 

" We are the boys who can run to the front, 
And jump over anywhere ! 
It's our delight, any sort of a night, 
All seasons of the year." 

The hilarious march up the desolate street dispelled 
the gloom for the time, the singing bringing the people 
out on to the sidewalks in goodly numbers. 

It was often remarked that among the residents of 
early Buffalo there were a number whose characteristics 
were remarkably peculiar. A score of such— now of 
the past— could be named. Among this class was John 
K. Tucker, the whilom proprietor of Tucker's Hotel, 
on Exchange street. Mr. Tucker was a rare combina- 
tion of assumption and vocal energy. Mr. Tucker 
had other characteristics, among which was a conceit 
that he excelled in horsemanship. That he was a mas- 
ter of arts and parts of which the animal is often the 
subject, was generally conceded. Early during the 



122 MODERN ANTIQUITIES. 

civil war, Mr. Tucker was a contractor to supply army 
horses, and to him I sold a pair designed for artillery 
service. When paying for them, Mr. Tucker said to 
me, " By the way — I want to show you a good horse 
for you to buy." At his stables a serviceable appear- 
ing animal was led out. Mr. Tucker remarked, "This 
horse we bought of a farmer in Hamburg, but the 
inspector rejected him, because of this wind-gall on 
his ankle, which you know don't hurt him. We paid 
a hundred for him ; he is in our way ; take him along 
at eighty." After close inspection, I said to Mr. 
Tucker, that if the horse was a good worker I would 
take him. " He is all right ; we have tried him," said 
Mr. Tucker. I then paid Mr. Tucker eighty dollars, 
and the horse was transferred to my stable. The 
next morning, when a harness was thrown upon him, 
he kicked viciously with both feet, and so continued to 
vibrate until the menial appliance was removed from 
his lordly presence, thus evincing that he had more gall 
than was contained in the puff on his ankle. Being 
aware that his late owner was well supplied with the 
bitter commodity, redress was deemed hopeless. 

A few days thereafter an agent of Mr. Tucker, 
named Peters, arrived from Canada with a car load of 
horses. Mr. Peters was then assigned to canvass the 
home market, with rolls of greenbacks in his pockets. 
It was thought a good scheme to intercept Mr. Peters. 
Acting on the inspiration, I was soon in his wake, and 
in good time sighted the buyer at the Cold Spring 



SKETCHES. 123 



tavern " Hardfinish " Clark was the landlord, and 
with him I had a private interview, and then hastened 
homeward. In good time " Hardfinish " informed Mr. 
Peters that he knew where there was a horse for sale 
that wonld make a good mount for an army officer. 
Mr. Peters was interested. " Hardfinish " wonld locate 
the animal under conditions. These being arranged 
the worthies drove to my stable, where the horse w,th 
a wind-oall on his ankle was inspected. Mr. Peters 
seemed pleased, and suggested a saddle. He was m- 
formed that a saddle was not available, but that Mr. 
Tucker knew me, and that I would guarantee the horse 
a bold actor-a veritable war-horse. Mr. Peters was 
desirous to obtain the horse for ten dollars less than 
„ p,ice-one hundred dollars. Finally, Mr. Peters 
paid me ninety dollars and led the horse away covertly 
handing "Hardfinish" a ten-dollar note. The next 
morning Mr. Peters returned, leading the horse with 
a wind-gall on his ankle. Mr. Peters stated that 
Mr Tucker didn't want that horse. Mr. Peters further 
remarked that he did want me to return to hmi nmety 
dollars paid to me the day before. Mr. Peters was 
advised that his petition would be placed on file, tie 
was requested to present my compliments to M^^ 
Tucker, and say that when having a horse he didn t 
want, the proper thing was to sell him-if he could, 
but that I did not desire to purchase— not that day. 

When again meeting Mr. Tucker he was agitated 
His language was plain, but undignified. He seemed 



124 MODERN ANTIQUITIES. 

hurt. He had fired his battery with complacency, but 
the recoil disconcerted him. Mr. Tucker was reminded 
that man was made to mourn. 

The late John Pierce, ex-Deputy Sheriff, Alderman, 
and Police Commissioner, possessed peculiar charac- 
teristics. To a great degree quiet and unobstrusive in 
manner, yet obtrusive in perpetrating jokes upon his 
friends, of whom there were many. Between Pierce 
and George B. Efner a close friendship ever existed. 
Both were passionately fond of animals — the horse 
occupying the seat of honor, and both were ever on 
the lookout for promising young animals at a low 
price, that they might develop and sell for a high price, 
and of this industry both were experts, skilled opera- 
tors and rivals. 

One day when George was alone in his stable office, 
John drove up, that being his horse-boarding stable. 
Stepping into the office and giving George a slap on 
the shoulder, he remarked : " George, my boy, I know 
where there is a slick one ; he'll make your eye shine 
when you see him. I'm going to gather him in, too." 

In the team of a farmer on the hay market John 
discovered a young horse that filled his eye, and at 
once proceeded to interview the farmer. Pointing to 
the mate of the fancied animal, he said : " You've a 
good horse there?" 

" Yes," said the farmer, " she's a good old mare. 
Do you want to buy a horse ? " 

" No," said John, " but I like to look at 'em." 



SKETCHES. 125 

" Take a look at the one on the other side," said 

the farmer. 

Tho more John looked at him the better he liked 
him. '' He looks fairly well," said John. 

" Yes, he's an extra good colt, and if a man wants 
to buy, I'll sell cheap, for I must raise some money," 
said the farmer. 

"What do you hold him at?" said John. 
"One hundred and forty dollars will buy him," 
said the farmer. 

John answered this with a significant whistle. In 
a manner unconcerned, John stepped aside, but soon 
after casually offered one hundred dollars for the colt, 
which offer the farmer declined to accept, and then this 
acute interview ended. After finding out from another 
farmer where " that man lived," John drove to Efner's, 
when the scene before related occurred. 

That night the farmer's colt haunted John's sleep, 
and the next day he thought of some business he dichit 
have in the town of Alden, where lived the farmer who 
had a horse whose owner John considered failed 
to appreciate his full value. The next morning a 
couple of hours' drive brought John Pierce to a farm 
house in Alden, where he halted, ostensibly to make 
an inquiry. There John was surprised to find the 
owner of the young horse that he had "no use for, 
but liked to look at." After some irrelevant talk, 
the farmer brought the colt out to show Mr. Pierce 
his action when turned loose in a paddock. The ex- 



126 MODERN ANTIQUITIES. 

liibition increased John's admiration for the animal. 
Finally he renewed his offer of one hundred dollars 
for him. 

" Can't sell him for that, but I want money, and jou 
can take him for f 125," said Mr. Brown. 

John shook his head, as he walked slowly to where 
his horse stood, but faced about and offered to split 
the difference. 

" Can't hardly do that," said Mr. Brown. 

Then John entered his buggy and started off slowly, 
feeling assured that he would be called back; but the 
call came not, and John drove home feeling sorry that 
he was not leading the coveted colt which he had de- 
termined to buy in any event. 

At Efner's stable, the next morning, John said to 
George : " George, my boy, I am going to Lockport 
to-day, but to-morrow I'm going for the horse I told 
you about. My mare is a little lame, and the road 
is rather heav}^ You have a pair hooked up for me 
early in the morning, and when I return will show you 
something that will please you." 

Soon after a load of hay was dri^^en to Efner's 
stable to be unloaded. The man with the hay said 
to Efner: 

"Who was that man talking to you when I drove 
up?" 

" Why, that was John Pierce, the deputy sheriff, 
don't you know him ? " 

" No ; but I saw him out our way yesterday trying 



SKETCHES. 



127 



to buy a horse of my neighbor, Mr. Brown, but they 
couldn't make a trade." 

Then George was interested. 
"What sort of a horse is it?" 

"Mighty good colt, I tell you, best one in our 
town." 

This information was nuts and wine for Efner, and 
soon after he was on his way to Alden, and that even- 
ing he placed a young horse that formerly belonged to 
farmer Brown, in a stall of his stable— his property. 
The next morning John promptly appeared, the team 
was ready, and off he went after Mr. Brown's colt. 
On his arrival Mr. Brown was in front of his house. 
" Good morning," said John. 
" Good morning. Sheriff," said Mr. Brown. 
" Mr. Brown, I've concluded to take the colt at your 
figure. Here's your money, and here's a leading-bridle 
to put on him," said Mr. Pierce. 

"What are you driving at?" said the farmer. 
" Why, you've got the horse there, on the off side. Mr. 
Efner was out here yesterday and bought him." 

For the moment John Pierce was stunned, and when 
he regained his breath he ejaculated, "Holy Ghost! " 
then applying the whip, the horses shot out as if 
answering a fire-alarm. On the way home John was 
unable to solve a conundrum by himself propounded : 
" How in hades did George Efner learn of that horse?" 
When John reached the city it occurred to him that 
his business down-town was not pressing, so he gave 



128 MODERN ANTIQUITIES. 

the team to a policeman to drive to Efner's stable. 
When the friends next met George asked : 

"John, didn't you get the horse? " 

"No," said John. "I discovered a nice little spavin 
growing on his hind leg, and made up my mind that 
John Pierce didn't want him." 

" Ah, ha I smarty. You had better get that spavin 
out of your eye, it might lame you," replied George. 

Many old Buffalonians will recall a quiet, cross- 
eyed little sport named Isaiah Smith, who was wont 
to parade the streets, twirling his cane. Occasionally 
Isaiah would drop into the saloon on West Huron 
street, kept by George Sherwood, the well-known singer, 
police constable and horseman. On the end of the 
counter stood a glass globe, nearly filled with water, 
the home of two little gold-fish. The door stood 
open one day, when Isaiah softly stepped in and 
peeked into the glass globe. Taking the tail of a fish 
between his thumb and finger, he raised and deftly 
dropped the tiny creature into his mouth, and down his 
throat it went. Observing the disappearance of his 
pet fish, Sherwood said, angrily : " You had better 
swallow the other one." No sooner said than done, 
when Isaiah coolly lit a cigar and passed out, twirling 
his cane as he went. Sherwood was mad as a wet hen, 
but said nothing more to Isaiah, he being quite handy 
with the pistol when attacked. In partaking of the 
free lunch not a word was uttered by the luncher. 



SKETCHES. 129 

During the decade of the thirties, before telegraph 
lines were known, horse-stealing was reduced to a 
science in Western New York. Appropriating and 
running animals over the Niagara into Canada, was an 
industry successfully prosecuted by bold operators, 
whose frequent depredations were such a burden and 
annoyance to the citizens, that protective associations 
were organized in the several communities, consisting 
of troops of mounted men, to pursue and recover 
stolen horses, and capture the thieves. These com- 
panies held themselves in readiness for duty at the call 
of their commander, in the manner of the historic 
*' minute men," all superbly mounted, and otherwise 
well found for continuous pursuit. However, these 
troopers were often unsuccessful in their pursuits, in 
coping with the cunning thieves, who, fox-like, had 
convenient holes of refuge by day, then to flee the 
country by night. The pursued held the advantage 
of their pursuers in being familiar with the routes 
taken, thus enabling a flight unobserved by sleeping 
communities; in being well mounted, as superior ani- 
mals only were by them appropriated, all of which 
facilitated escape. Thus trails were lost and captures 
prevented. 

The local troop was a superior organization, excep- 
tionally well mounted, and otherwise equipped for 
efficient service. The following were among the num- 
ber: Samuel R. Atkins, of Buffalo Plains, com- 
mander: William C. Brown, William Holt and Sam- 



130 MODERN ANTIQUITIES. 

uel Eley, of Buffalo Plains ; John S. King, Adam 
Rinewalt and T. S. Hopkins, of Amherst; William 
Wire and Jacob Schell, of Tonawanda ; Michael 
Shultz, Vincent Rogers and James Saddler, of Clarence. 

The writer recalls a dress parade of this troop on 
Buffalo Plains and the admiration he had for the 
array of cavaliers, their equipment and evolutions. 

A short time after the parade, a paradoxical event 
occurred, the theft of a valuable pair of mares from 
the commander of the troop, which were not recovered, 
notwithstanding the country was traversed far and 
wide in their pursuit. Not a trace was obtained of 
horses or thieves beyond LeRoy, where they break- 
fasted the morning after the theft. The perpetrators 
of the bold venture were a brace of experts named 
Ambrose and Joe Bois. When at home the Bois 
brothers were at the house of their mother in Buffalo, 
on the north side of Court street, between Main and 
Pearl streets. 

Five years later, January, 1840, the sheriff was 
advised that Ambrose Bois was secretly visiting his 
mother and measures were taken for his arrest. He 
was known to be a desperate character when at bay, 
and due precaution was observed. A watch was placed 
on the house, and when night came a raid was 
made and the culprit captured and j^laced in jail. At 
the March Term of Oyer and Terminer he was con- 
victed of the theft and sentenced to five years at 
Auburn. Joe Bois evaded arrest for this crime, but 



SKETCHES. 131 

in gracious compensation ended his life in the Ohio 
penitentiary. 

Speeding horses on the snow-path was an old-time 
winter amusement in Buffalo. The scenes attendant 
on early occasions, first on Main and then on Delaware 
street, are now repeated on Richmond Avenue. New 
Year's Day in ye olden time was celebrated in social 
reunions — out sleighing in huge sleighs drawn by four 
and six horses, decorated with plumes and flags, which, 
too-ether with hundreds of smaller tarn-outs, constituted 
a carnival of good cheer — a day of jubilee. But the 
actors in the old comedies have in the main disap- 
peared. Modern actors may be interested in the 
rehearsal of a scene presented on Delaware avenue 
forty-live years ago : 

Time, January 1, 1854. 

The writer, with horse and sleigh at Main and 
Seneca streets, espies an acquaintance on the walk, a 
resident of an adjacent village, hurrying up-town. 

"Hello, George! Whither are you drifting?" 

" Going up to Stevenson's to get a rig — want to see 
the trotters." 

"Just so. Get in here under this robe, I'll show 
3^ou the circus." 

" All right. Here I am ; now proceed. But we'll 
need some cigars. Pull up at Boas's and I'll skip in 
and get some." 

The cio-ars were lighted and the drive was to Niagara 



132 MODERN ANTIQUITIES. 

Square, where we found Delaware avenue filled with 
turn-outs. 

" Here we are in the midst of them. Now we'll join 
the procession and see how people enjoy cold feet and 
blue noses." 

My companion was all observant. 

'' That's a nice old gentleman with that big chestnut, 
who's he?" 

" That's Jacob S. Miller and ' Old Captain ' — man 
and horse — both are captains." 

'"• Jerush ! That's a nobby establishment, horses and 
sleigh, with colored plumes." 

" Yes ; that's A. D. Patchin, the banker. The large 
man on the rear seat is Asa B. Meech. Both have the 
horse distemper." 

" Here's a fine horse. Who's the driver with fur 
cap, collar and gloves ? " 

*' That's Chandler Wells ; he, too, has the disease." 

" That's a fine pair — that sorrel and black, hooked 
up light. Who's the airy chai3 driving?" 

" Oh, that's West India Mills. But the horses are 
all right — ' William T. Porter' and ' Belle of Saratoga.' 
They can road a thirty clip. The man in furs with the 
brown mare is Frederick Gridley, the broker. The 
man and wife in the Portland are Mr. and Mrs. Arthur 
Fox. The lady is the daughter of a horseman and 
inherits admiration for the animal." 

" Who are those larks ? " 



SKETCHES. 133 

" Walter Harris and George Coburn, and the mare 
is the trotter ' Knownothing.' Wait till you see them 
pass through with the gang. It will make you hold 
your cap on." 

" That gray pacer is a dandy. And so are the two 
sports in the cutter, I should say." 

"You've guessed it. That's Cart Sawin and Ed. 
Blancan. Their gray pony can melt the snow when 
set going. The man in the plain cutter is Jay Petti- 
bone, the distiller. His horse is liable to be speedy. 
That tandem? Why, that's Doctor Gary, and he 
enjoys it." 

"Who's the fat old chap on the rear seat of that 
hack sleigh?" 

"That's Gharles Norton, Buffalo's Jack Falstaff." 

"He looks as if he loved sack." 

"You bet." 

" That yellow bay is a good stepper, and I reckon 
the driver is another." 

" Yes, yes, right you are. That's Lanse Thomas 
and ' Ganary Bird.' When she sings he jigs." 

" Gan he dance?" 

" Dance ! It would make you shed tears to see him 
sing and dance ' Uncle Snow' : " 

"My name is Uncle Snow, I have you all to know, 
I's de slickest wid de brush in all creation ; 
I's gwine down to Washington to take a little job, 
To whitewash all de free nigs in de nation." 



134 MODERN ANTIQUITIES. 

" Who's the Russian turn-out?" 
" That's Goodenough, the Exchange-street broker ; 
and the man alongside is Tom Smith, the bonnet 
dealer. Smith loves his horse, but can't hear him 
cough when he has a cold. There comes O. W. Dim- 
ock with 'Jack Rositer,' the champion two-miler. Otis 
won't speed him in the street. Has brought him out 
for an airing. He's a trotter that can burn the track 
from the half to the wire. And there comes George 
Hosley with ' Tib Hinman.' George won't speed with 
the brigade. The little mare is too sweet to take such 
chances. Yes, she's a trotter. Got a record on the 
ice at Ogdensburg of 2.22." 

''That gray is moving nicely. Who's the driver?" 
" That's Judge Masten, with ' Recorder.' He has 
two or three good ones in his stable. Now, we have 
made the circuit. The brigade are congregating at 
Virginia street for the down drive, and we'll soon see 
some fun." 

" Yes ; and here come three of them. Look out I " 

"They are moving well. The leader is Lyman B. 

Smith, with his trotter ' Fred,' and on his quarter is 

Harvey Peek, with his Arabian spike, and George 

Malcom, close up." 

" Malcom ! Is he the Cold Spring distiller ? " 
" Yes ; and he's a trotter, too. Thinks more of 
them than of getting a wife." 

" And here they come ! Jehu ! See the snow fly." 
" Yes, yes ; they are the boys to stir up the snow. 



SKETCHES. 135 

The leader is W. W. Huff, the horse doctor, with the 
trotter 'Mayflower.' Next, and close up, is Edwin 
Hurlbut, with the ' Hurlbut Mare,' and right up with 
them is Peter Young driving the ' Patrick Pony,' now 
called ' Acorn '. Next to Peter is Lauren Burton, 
with ' Black Maria,' and lapped onto Burton is George 
Efner, driving ' Mary Blane ' — no better roadster any- 
where, and she can trot, too, as you observe." 
" Here comes another bunch of them." 
" Yes ; the rest of the gang : Pop Horter, 
George Harris, Eli Boyington, William Lockwood, 
Fordyce Cowing, Forman Mount, Wooster Burton, 
and in the rear, his usual place, is George Metzger 
with •■ Missouri '. And there comes John Steven- 
son with the six-horse sleigh and a full cargo of 
web-footers. There are Captains Fred Wheeler, Peter 
Smith, Bill Stone, Jim Snow, T. J. Titus, Bill Arthur, 
Fred Miller, Bob Wagstaff, Jim Beckwith, Jim Hath- 
away, Amasa Kingman, Luther Chamberlain and 
Harry Watts, all lake captains, and with them are 
their two landsmen chums. Deacon Alvord and Gust. 
Tiffany. That party will paint the town before 
midnight." 

" And there's another six-horse turn-out." 
"Yes; that's the American Express Company's 
sleigh. Let us see who compose the party. There is 
W. G. Fargo, W. B. Peck, A. G. C. Cochrane, Jacob 
Dygert and Ham. Best, all of the company, and their 
guests are Judge Verplanck, Charles Ensign, George 



136 MODERN ANTIQUITIES. 

W. Holt, Charles E. Peck, Captain E. P. Dorr, A. S. 
Bemis, William Kasson, George W. Bull, George P. 
Stevenson and T. T. Bloomer, a good lot and a fine 
team. See how nicely Sherman curves the leaders up 
Niagara street." 

Now the shades of evening appeared. My compan- 
ion was silent and contemplative. He recuperated in 
good shape : 

" Say ! How would a hot-scotch sit on our stomachs? " 

" Soothingly." 

" Well, where can we get 'em in good strength?" 

'' At McDougal's, on Seneca street." 

" Jerush ! That's a good ways. But hurry up, let 
the horse travel, I'm suffering." 

Soon after the animal was warmly blanketed on 
Seneca street — x x x — three of a kind. 

In the fall of 1859 a social association was organized 
in Buffalo, named the B. B. B. D., having a large 
membership, which held nightly meetings in an apart- 
ment of St. elames Hall. C. C. Bristol was its presi- 
dent, and his onerous duties were shared by a galaxy 
of vice-presidents and secretaries. For the election of 
new members frequent executive sessions were held, 
when the caliber of the candidate would be volumin- 
ously discussed by the lawyers, doctors and steamboat 
captains, who were numerous in attendance. The 
initiation fee for a member, was a half bushel of pret- 
zels (in the twist) and a keg of beer — with a renewal 
payment at stated intervals. The qualification for a 



SKETCHES. 137 

desirable member was involved in his disposition to 
purchase supplies on festive occasions. The orator- 
ical capacity, ethics and lung power concentrated 
in the association, was to a degree stupendous, and the 
complex conundrums given to the chairman to solve, 
were handled by President Bristol with masterly art. 
The owl-like wisdom displayed by him on such occasions 
was convulsively amusing. 

The application of citizen Charles Norton for 
membership, caused animated discussion. Those 
opposed held that the applicant would be a greater 
consumer than a provider of viands ; on the other hand 
it was contended that his capacity to consume would 
be beneficial, inasmuch as a fresh supply for each ban- 
quet would be assured in lieu of stale goods. Then a 
member arose and stated that he knew the applicant 
well, that his disposition to purchase was profound — 
on credit — whereupon a magnanimous brewer arose 
and stated that he would accord a line of credit to the 
applicant, when, amid applause, Mr. Norton was unan- 
imously elected a member of the association. 

During the winter the local press made frequent 
appeals for aid for the needy poor, when the associa- 
tion resolved itself into a relief organization for needy 
families of the city, to solicit, collect and distribute 
donations from the citizens at large. Wagons trav- 
ersed the streets, attended by committees, who would 
receive donations of any character — food, clothing or 
furniture — and soon the commodious basement of St. 



138 MODERN ANTIQUITIES. 

James Hall was filled with commodities, and was the 
base of supplies for the distributing committees. On 
February 9, 1860, the association held a festival at 
St. James Hall, which was an immense success, the 
building and street being inadequate to hold the people 
who responded to the thousands of invitations distrib- 
uted by the Grand Secretary, Henry W. Faxon. The 
circular distributed by that versatile journalist com- 
prised, besides the invitation to attend, an invitation 
to donate, naming many varieties of articles which 
would be received, and the program for an exhibition 
from the stage, ending with a series of tableaux of 
local nature and interest. The following is the Faxon 
circular : 

BUFFALO GRAND BENEVOLENT ASSOCIATION. 

To 

Sir — You are respectfully invited to attend the Annual Fes- 
tival of this Association, to be held at St. James Hall, on Thurs- 
day, February 9, 1860. 

Admit the Bearer. 
H. W. Faxon, Chairman Committee of Arrangements. 

Prelude. 

Gentlemen and ladies desirous of contributing to the needy 
poor will find in the list herein enumerated abundant aggrava- 
tion for the vacation of their pockets, the decimation of their 
personal property in stocks, bonds and bank notes, and other 
calamities. But no gentleman, it is hoped, will be so carried 
away by the excitement of the occasion as to donate anything 
that may militate against the claims of his own widows and 
orphans, which should be paramount to all else. 



SKETCHES. 139 

Articles Peculiarly Acceptable. 

Victuals and Things. 

Charlotte Russe in packages, or Charlottes without ruse. Fresh 
Dutchwomen's hens' eggs. Ducks on foot, in the pond, or in the 
quack, if not donated by medical students. Pigs, roasted or 
broiled, in the pen, or in the tenderloin. Flour, in sacks and 
barrels, or in doughnuts. Buckwheat, with the scratch extracted. 
Indian and oatmeal, shorts and middlings, by the ton. Beer, in 
quarters, halves and wholes, by the dray load — or in the Courier 
office. Sausages, in the hog or dog, in the smooth or in the rough. 
No. 1 mackeral ; to feed country editors, a few kits of No. 10 in 
the rust, will be tolerated. Ice cream, froze tight. Sugar and 
molasses in hogsheads. Codfish, in crates or quintals. All kinds 
of fish, comprehending suckers, sardines, turtle, Rochester mulr 
let and Tonawanda bullheads. Native fruit, such as apples and 
protested notes of hand, by the bushel or barrel. Chickens and 
oysters, in the shell or on foot, in the feather or the keg, or on 
commission. Butter, by special contract — none strong enough to 
donate itself will be tolerated. Corned beef will be accepted, 
drunk or sober. Milk, from the cow, pump or distillery. Young 
and old farmers' veal, when accompanied with affidavits. Geese, 
with squawks and liver complaint extracted. Porter-house steaks, 
with the tenderloin in. In fact, any kind of victuals that can 
make the palate enthusiastic and the stomach Jubilant." 

GrARMENTS. 

Pea jackets, monkey jackets and water jackets. Pantaloons, 
with pockets mortised in. Undershirts, in muslin de laine or 
buckskin, or in moire antique. Drawers, of wool, cotton, slippery 
elm or tin foil. The variety trimmed with Brussels lace not 
wanted. Neckties, in silk, welting-cord or hemp. Stockings 
( darned ), long or short. Capes, cloaks and muffs in Russian 
sable, seal or ermine. BufPalo-skins and balmoral skirts. Dam- 
ask and other curtain goods. In fact, everything made of any 
kind of fibre, except the Buffalo Express. 



140 MODERN ANTIQUITIES. 

Luxuries. 

After the solids, as above enumerated, the following luxuries 
will be especially acceptable : Gold, in bullion, bushels, bags or 
half bushels. Silver, in limited quantities. Gold bricks not 
accepted. Bills of exchange, in large amounts — on London pre- 
ferred. Farmers' Joint Stock Bank notes and false teeth. Turtle 
shell combs and rubber overshoes. Confessions of recent mur- 
derers, and hangman's ropes, with the knot in. Counterfeit coin, 
by sample. Gold-rimmed eye-glasses and Pittsburg Railroad 
stock — the latter in limited quantities. Opera-glasses and glass 
eyes. Cod-liver oil and bids for city printing. Corn plasters, 
quinine pills and dried beef. Mathews' hair dye and salt-rheum 
ointment. Messenger colts and Jersey heifers, and rock and rye 
in large quantities. 

Objects of Virtu. 

Defeated candidates for mayor, and wood by the cord. Demo- 
cratic majorities at the last election — if hermetically sealed. Dis- 
appointed office seekers and Powers' Greek Slaves. Sugar plums 
and kisses, of the tu-lip variety. Sugar-cured hams and Palmer's 
marbles. Members of Assembly and silk muffiers, or anything 
else woven pliably by hand or loom. Liquors and cigars, by dray 
loads. Donors in this department have a wide field to operate in, 
and it is hoped that they will commence early and persevere in 
the good work, as there are many applicants for relief who have 
a refined taste for these goods. If there be anything you have 
not in the above list, why, send it in at once, and not mind the 
expense or consequences. 

Note. 

Although there is no resolution strictly forbidding the presence 
of ladies at the festival, the committee are of the opinion that 
it would be as well for them to stay at home and take care of 
the children.* 

* But they didn't stay away worth a cent— they came in flocks. 



SKETCHES. 141 

Of the village boys, who were to the manor born, 
but few snrvive to close the centnry. Of the number 
resident in the city, Oscar F. Crary is the eldest, born 
in 1816. Next in point of age is Pascal P. Pratt, 
born in 1819. In 1823 appeared George B. Efner 
and Alvin D. Gilbert. Of the births of 1826, Hiram 
C. Day and the writer hereof remain. Washington 
Russell was born in 1828, and David F. Day in 1829. 
John E. McManus was in evidence at the close of the 
villaoe era. There are resident in Buffalo a number 
of elderly ladies who, it is believed, were village girls, 
but, owing to an impediment in their memory as to 
their exact age, such belief cannot be verified. An 
exception is Miss Sabrina Hosford, of Main street, 
who confesses to her birth in Buff'alo in 1815. Miss 
Hosford has witnessed Buffalo's evolution from a 
hamlet to a metropolis — from Red Jacket to 
Mayor Diehl. 

With this chapter ends the sketches of early Buffalo. 
And it is well. Reflection recalls the admonition : 

" Is not your voice broken'/ your wind short? your wit single? 
and every part of you blurred with antiquity ? " 

Just so, Mr. Shakespeare. 



142 MODERN ANTIQUITIES. 



BUFFALO. 

Where liaming swords were in anger drew. 
Where Red Jacket paddled his canoe, 
And three Thayers hanged in open view — 
Was Old-time Buffalo. 

Where savage life in the main prevailed, 
Where approach was by Indian trail, 
Then rail-trains met the gliding sail — 
Was Progressive Buffalo. 

Where Great Lakes lay their tribute down. 
Where miles of handsome homes abound. 
And where its people own the town — 
Is Domestic Buffalo. 

Where are rural parks and cosy drives, 
Where shaded lawns in beauty thrive, 
And massive structures point the skies — 
Is Picturesque Buffalo. 

Where Niagara tlows a rapid stream. 
Where Nature's power replaces steam, 
And bustling streets are smooth and clean- 
Is Excelsior Buffalo. 

Let zephyrs blow, high or low — 
"Put me off at Buffalo." 



APPENDIX. 



From the New York Missionary Magazine of December, 1800. 
Fort Niagara, October 29, 1800. 

Reverend and Dear Brother : Through the kind provi- 
dence of God, I arrived the 14th of this month at the Seneca 
Castle, five miles above where the Buffaloe empties into Lake Erie. 
I waited on the chief sachem (called Farmer's Brother) with 
Cusoc, my interpreter, and made known to him my business, and 
asked his favor, and for the chiefs of the nation to meet me in 
council. He informed me that he had heard of me before, and 
that he would consult with the chiefs, and as soon as they could 
be ready he would let me know it. I then took my leave of him, 
leaving Cusoc to tarry in the village, and went to a village of 
white people, consisting of five or six families, at the mouth of 
the Buffaloe. 

On Friday 'following Cusoc came and informed me that the 
chiefs would meet in council that afternoon and that they desired 
me to attend. I proceeded to the Castle, and on arrival found the 
sachems and chiefs, with about one hundred Indians, assembled 
in the Council House. Soon after I was seated. Red Jacket, the 
second sachem, addressed me in a short speech, complimenting 
me upon my arrival among them and saying that they were ready 
to hear what I had to say. I then arose and addressed them as I 
thought proper, and delivered the talk (as they style it) from the 
directors of the missionary society. 

I left Buffaloe on Monday and reached here yesterday — in hopes 
of seeing my friend Major Rivardi before he left, but was two 
hours too late. He is removed from the command of this post. 
One Major Porter now commands here. I propose to be with the 
Tuscaroras until next month and then return to the Senecas. 
■X- * * * * 

ELKANAH HOLMES. 

Rev. J. M. Mason, 

Secretary of the Missionary Society, New York. 



144 APPENDIX. 

From the New York Missionary Magazine of December, ISOO. 

The following address was made to me by Red Jacket, Second 
Sachem of the Senecas, at the Council House, Seneca Castle, on 
the 15th day of October, 1800. 

ELKANAH HOLMES. 

" Father : We are happy that the Great Spirit has permitted 
us to meet together this day. We heard what you spoke to us. 
We thank the Great Spirit for putting into the minds of the good 
society of friendship in New York to send you to visit us. On 
your way to visit us you called on our brothers, the Oneidas, 
Muhhecomuks, and the Tuscaroras. We thank them for sending 
this good talk with wampum (holding the wampum up). We 
believe that you mean to do good to us, that there is no cheat in 
your talk, or in the society that sent you to us." 

He then spoke to his people, charging them to make no noise 
and pay attention to what I had to say. I then proceeded to 
preach to them of Jesus Christ. When I had concluded Red 
Jacket arose and again addressed me as follows : 

"Father: We thank the Great Spirit for what you have 
spoken to us and hope he will always keep your heart in this 
good work. 

" Father : We believe there is a Great Spirit above who made 
all things, has made the whites as well as the Indians, and we 
believe there is something good after death ; and we believe what 
you say, that the Great Spirit knows all we do. 

"Father : We are astonished at you whites that when Jesus 
Christ was among you doing good that you white people did not 
pay attention to him, and believe him, and that you put him to 
death. 

"Father : We Indians did not do this. The Great Spirit has 
given white people their ways to serve him and to get your living, 
and he has given Indians their ways to serve him and to get their 
jiving by hunting the game he gives to us. 

"Father: You and your people know that the whites are 
getting our lands from us for almost nothing. If such good 



APPENDIX. 145 

people as you and your society had advised us Indians, we and 
our forefathers would not have been cheated by the white people 
who have taken our hunting-grounds. 

"Father : You do not come with maps under your arms that 
we have found deceit in. You come a father to advise us for our 
good, and not to cheat us out of our lands." 

He then took strings of wampum in his hand and continued : 

"Father: You and your society know that when learning 
was given to the Indians they became small in numbers, and 
some nations are extinct, and we do not know what has become 
of them. Our brothers, the Mohawks and the Oneidas, they were 
driven away from their lands. 

" Father : We think learning would do us no good. We are 
astonished that you white people who have the good book, the 
Bible, and can read it and can understand it, that they are so bad 
and do many wicked things. 

"Father: We (pointing to Farmer's Brother) cannot see that 
learning would do our people any good. We will leave it to those 
who come after us to judge for themselves. If learning was 
given to us, cheating would creep in among us and we would 
share the fate of our brothers, the Mohawks and the Oneidas, 
and we would not know where to go." 

He then presented me with seven strings of wampum, saying : 
"We want you to give these to the good society that sent you 
here." 

We, the undersigned, were the interpreters of the above speech 
of Red Jacket, and assisted in committing it to writing. We 
hereby certify that it is as near to the ideas and phraseology 
expressed by him as we can write it. 

Signed : William Johnston. 

Nicholas Cusoc. 

BuPFALOE Creek, October 25, 1800. 

ELKANAH HOLMES. 



146 APPENDIX. 

From the Neic York Missionary Magazine of December, 1800. 

SPEECH OF FARMER'S BROTHER. 
The following speech was made to me on the 21st day of Octo- 
ber, 1800, by Farmer's Brother, Chief Sachem of the Seneca 
Nation, at the house of John Palmer, near the mouth of Buffaloe 
Creek, it being the third public talk I had with them. 

ELKANAH HOLMES. 

" Father : We thank the Great Spirit for allowing us to meet 
together this day. We have something more to say to you. 
When we heard your good talk we had no time to speak all we 
wanted to say to you. 

" Father : We will now talk to you and to your good society. 

"Father: The United States and the Quakers wanted some 
of our boys sent to them to get learning. 

"Father: I gave the United States one of my grandsons to 
get learning. 

"Father: We hoped when he got learning he would be of 
some good to our nation — to tell us of the good ways of the 
white people. Two years after he went to Philadelphia I went 
there on business for our nation. When there I saw my grand- 
son, and was sorry when I saw him. He was in a tavern with 
some bad people — men and women — and he a boy yet. Then my 
thoughts that he would be of service to our nation was gone. 
We have no such things among us of boys having bad ways. 

"Father: Some time ago I went to Geneseo and saw my 
grandson there in soldier clothes. He wanted me to give him 
two miles square to support him in going about the country. 

"Father : By your good talk I would have your good society 
take one of our boys and take care of him and give him learning 
of good ways. 

" Father : We hope the Great Spirit will have his eyes on this 
boy that we give up to your good society. We hope they will 
plant good things in him. 

" Father : We now give to you these strings of wampum to 
take with our talk to your good society in New York that sent 
you to visit us." William Johnston, ) i^^terpreters 

Attest : Nicholas Cusoc, ) 

ELKANAH HOLMES. 



SKETCHES OF ALASKA. 



SKETCHES OF ALASKA. 



CHAPTER I. 

SCENERY. 

On the 21st day of July, 1885, I was commissioned, 
by President Grover Cleveland, Marshal of the United 
States in and for the District of Alaska. 

On the 8th of September following, together with 
the newly appointed Governor, Judge and District 
Attorney for the district, we embarked at Port 
Townsend, Wash., on the steamship Idaho^ bound 
for Sitka, Alaska. 

After a run of three hours across the strait of San 
Juan del Fuca, the ship was entering a cosy bay of 
the large Island of Vancouver, British Columbia, 
where is picturesquely situated the pleasant city of 
Victoria. The town has a population of twelve thou- 
sand inhabitants, and is noted for its genial climate, 
line scenery, and, at that period, for its American 
Consul. To an American, the aspect at Victoria is 
decidedly colonial, unless it be its hackmen, who, evi- 
dently, were educated at Niagara Falls. 



150 SKETCHES OB^ ALASKA. 

Upon reaching the wharf, the ship was boarded by 
a fussy old man, inquiring if the Alaska officials were 
on board. When intercepting us, he said he was the 
United States Consul ; that he was 66 years old, with 
faculties unimpaired ; that his wife was the daughter 
of the lamented Col. Baker, of Oregon, and that in 
war times he was clerk of a United States Senate com- 
mittee ; that President Hayes appointed him to his 
present position, and that he came to greet and invite 
us to call at the consulate. For all of which we 
thanked him, of course. During our stay at Victoria 
he was persistently officious, assuming to advise us 
how to conduct ourselves in order to maintain the dig- 
nity of our official position in due form. To our party 
he was a compound nuisance, and we were glad when 
rid of him. Josh Billings remarked that he had un- 
successfully struggled with the conundrum : "At 
what time of life is a man the biggest fool ? " Had 
Josh been of our party he would have concluded that 
it was when consul at Victoria. 

On leaving Victoria the ship makes the passage of 
the Gulf of Georgia, a body of salt water dividing 
the Island of Vancouver from the main shore of Brit- 
ish Columbia. The passengers crowded the deck while 
the ship ran through narrow passages between ever- 
green islets, made difficult and exciting by the rapid 
flowing of the tide. When passing the north point of 
Vancouver the open sea is encountered for a distance 
of thirty miles, when the ship enters the world's won- 



SCENERY. 151 

derland — the inland passage up the north Pacific coast. 
The Alexandria Archipelago, so named by Vancouver, 
comprises hundreds of islands, which, for eight hun- 
dred miles, fringe the coast of British Columbia and 
Alaska. Many of the islands and channels retain 
names given them by that intrepid navigator. 

Able descriptive writers have essayed to portray the 
grandeur of these waters, one of whom writes : " The 
stillness of air, land and water in the early morning 
made it seem like the dawn of creation on some new 
paradise." Another writer says : "I could scarcely 
realize that I was in the same world left behind me." 
Another relates an incident. " I wish I could remem- 
ber the beautiful words with which the Rev. Dr. 
Tiffany likened it to the glorious portal of future life. 
I do remember a gentleman standing near me re- 
marked : ' I did not believe that God ever made 
anything so beautiful as this.' To which I involun- 
tarily replied, but not irreverently, ' I did not believe 
that he could.' " 

During my stay in Alaska much of my time was 
spent in traversing these channels, and my observation 
could not detect wherein the above descriptions were 
overdrawn. No pen can faithfully describe the gran- 
deur there presented. The observer meets with many 
surprises — new scenery constantly appearing as the 
steamer pursues its winding course among the islands. 
Many whales are seen projecting their sable backs 
above the surface of water, and at near approach dive 



152 SKETCHES OF aIaSKA. 

into its depths, flaunting their tails in defiance as they 
longitudinally disappear from view. In ludicrous con- 
trast to the majesty of the scene, was a dude on the 
upper deck firing at a huge whale with No. 6 shot. 

Prominent among these passages is Glenville chan- 
nel. It is about forty miles long, a half-mile wide, 
and mostly straight as an arrow. Lined on either 
side by mountain walls, clothed with evergreen up to 
the timber line, thence is presented a region of rock, 
vast in extent, all of which is surmounted by a region 
of snow and ice — these aerial glaciers glistening in the 
sunlight with " more than silvery whiteness." 

An approaching steamer, when in this channel, so 
near the mountain walls, loses the majesty it presents 
in open water, appearing as insignificant as a house-fly 
crawling on a billiard table. Occasionally, a local 
snow-storm can be seen dancing a H ighland fling on a 
mountain-top, while a genial atmosphere of sixty de- 
grees prevails on the deck of the steamer. Numerous 
tiny cataracts leap down hundreds of feet perpendic- 
ularly. They look, as I heard a lady remark, " like 
huge satin ribbons, hanging down the mountain walls." 
Throughout the archipelego hundreds of evergreen 
islets decorate the waters, "like gems on a coronet." 
The beholder of this sublime scenery is struck with 
wonder and awe at its more than earthly grandeur. 

We called at Douglas Island, where there is a pro- 
ducing gold mine, and a large stamp-mill in full opera- 
tion. It was then the property of Senator Jones, of 



SCENERY. 153 

Nevada, and other mining capitalists. The Senator 
was a passenger on the ship from Victoria. He is an 
agreeable, level-headed man of the world, enthusiastic 
in the future of Alaska as a gold-producing region. 
The Senator was accompanied by his wife, whose 
superior personality, and kindly greetings accorded to 
strangers on shij^board, is a pleasant memory. 



154 SKETCHES OF ALASKA. 



CHAPTER 11. 

SITKA. 

After a pleasant and interesting passage of seven 
days, the ship landed at Sitka, the Alaskan capital. 
The town is situated on the west shore of Baranoff 
Island, at the head of a deep bay, twenty miles from 
the outer capes. The capes are about fifteen miles 
apart, the shores of the bay approaching to within a 
distance of five miles at the head of the bay, where 
is located the town. Baranoff is an outer island of the 
group, its east shore being about fifty miles from the 
main-land. It is eighty miles long from north to south, 
maintaining a width of thirty miles, in latitude 57.2, 
and longitude 135 degrees west from Greenwich. 

The town of Sitka is built on a level plateau, con- 
taining about three hundred acres, fifteen feet above 
high tide. This area is washed on two sides by the 
waters of the bay, and otherwise walled in by high 
mountains, whose snow region is three thousand feet 
above the tide. Fronting the town, one thousand feet 
distant, are a cordon of islands across the bay, clothed 
with evergreen, the channels between affording ample 
entrance to a connnodious harbor, thus forming a cosy 
amphitheatre, where nestles the quaint little town of 
hewn logs and whitewashed walls. With its primitive 
architecture, its grassy courts and graveled walks, its 



SITKA. 



155 



waters and islets, its traders and their shops, its In- 
dians and their canoes, Sitka is much like the old town 
of Mackinaw, at the head of Lake Huron. 

Included in the population of Sitka, at that period, 
were about one hundred Russian Creoles, quiet and 
industrious people. Of Americans proper there were 
about a like number, including- civil officials, naval 
officers and their families. The adjoining Indian vil- 
lage, or ''ranche," as there called, contained about one 
thousand natives, men, women and children. At the 
front, facing the waters of the bay, is an open space of 
about three acres, called " The Green," appropriately 
so, as the grass thereon remains fresh and green 
throughout the year. Here are mounted two Dahlgren 
guns, with a number of ancient Russian cannon keep- 
ing them company, altogether an imposing battery to 
repel a fleet of canoes. The Government buildings 
face the Green, and, like the old cannon, are relics of 
the Russian nobles, who in days of yore held high 
carnival at Sitka. 

Out seaward, on the north shore of the bay, stands 
majestic Mt. Edgecomb, a subdued volcano. When 
Captain Cook was there in 1796, it was in an angry 
mood, belching out smoke, cinders, fire and brimstone, 
but now it is an orderly and conservative volcano. 

There is a large mission establishment at Sitka, in- 
cluding an Industrial School, where little Indians are 
taught to read and write, the boys blacksmithing, shoe-* 
making and carpenter work, and the girls to cook, sew 



156 SKETCHES OF ALASKA. 

and knit. The day following our arrival the newly 
arrived Governor and Marshal were invited to dine at 
the mission. When standing- in line awaitino- intro- 
duction to the ladies there resident, the hostess advanced 
and offered her hand to the Marshal, saying : " You 
are very welcome to Sitka, Governor." Her greeting- 
was cordially reciprocated, when she was advised of 
her mistaken identity, and assured that it was quite 
justified when contrasting our personal appearance. 
The incident gave zest to our introductions, and has- 
tened our acquaintance with the people there assembled, 
and caused the constant watching of the Governor for 
an opportunity to get even, until he succeeded in so 
doing. We were shown through the work-shops, 
where I noticed a ten-year-old boy, with freckled 
face and sandy hair. The novelty of a red-haired 
Indian prompted the inquiry, " What's your name ? " 
Promptly came the answer, " Mike Murphy." Eureka ! 
An Irish Indian ! Who'd a thunk it? 

Shortly after our arrival occurred an incident novel 
and interesting to a "tenderfoot." A native holding a 
coil of line, waded out from the beach and hove its 
hook end far out into the water, and then returned to 
shore. He soon began to haul in, hand over hand, 
and soon with greater exertion, as if he had a bite from 
something having at least two rows of teeth ; and sure 
enough, for there appeared in the surf a lusty halibut, 
•making the water boil by the handy wielding of his 
tail. Mr. Indian again waded out and gave the fish a 



SITKA. 157 

smart rap on the head with a club, and then, aided by 
a helper, dragged his captive to the beach amid the 
applause of Governor, Marshal, squaws, mugwumps 
and hoodlums. 

In Sitka bear-skins are a legal tender, and a house- 
hold article in all well-regulated families. No sleeping 
room is complete without a bear-skin spread in front 
of the bed to receive your feet when in a bare state. 
Their market price was $5.00 each. Governor Swine- 
ford paid an octogenarian squaw -16.00 for one. When 
asked why the extra dollar was demanded, she coolly 
replied, " Big Chief pay much." 

Sitka is a naval station, and a vessel of war is sta- 
tioned there, with its company of marines quartered 
on shore, where they beat and blow '' taps," early and 
late, and drill on the Green. 

In Sitka there is an old Greek Church, with a tower 
containing a chime of six bells, which supply the town 
with music galore. There, also, is a colony of ravens, 
the identical "ominous birds of yore," occupying an 
adjacent mountain-side. They make daily visits, and 
hold dress parade on the Green. Their gyrations are 
in fair imitation of the marines in their morning drill ; 
the birds coming immediately after. Seals and sea-lions 
sun themselves on the outer rocks, while the festive 
dolphin and porpoise perform their gymnastic exercises 
within the inner bay. The weather clerk flew his scien- 
tific kites from the top of the " Castle," the most pre- 
tentious structure made by human hands in all Alaska. 



158 SKETCHES OF ALASKA. 



THE GREEK CHURCH. 



The most interesting relic of the Eussian era in 
Alaska is the Russo-Greek Church of St. Michael at 
Sitka. It is designed and constructed in the form of a 
Greek cross, like similar edifices in the mother coun- 
try, and is the only one of similar consti-uction on the 
western continent. It is prominently situated, facing 
the sea at the head of the street running up from the 
landing. The front entrance is through the square 
base of the tower, in the second story of which is the 
chime of bells. From the tower rises a tall, symmetri- 
cal spire, topped by a golden cross, comprising four 
distinct crosses. Back of the tower, surmounting the 
main portion of the structure, is a massive metal- 
covered oriental dome. From the cupola above the 
dome, rises a spire, supporting a large golden ball, and 
above the ball is a compound Greek cross nine feet 
high. The church was erected ninety years ago, and 
now, while its exterior is an old, weather-worn concern, 
the interior has its original presentment of an oriental 
paradise. One wing is used as a chapel, and therein, 
beside an unique font, is a large painting of the Vir- 
gin and Child, a counterpart of the celebrated painting 
at Moscow. All the drapery is of silver and the halo 
of gold. The chancel is elevated, and approached by 
three broad steps up to two golden bronzed doors, 
ornamented by solid silver images of the patron saints. 
All the panels are decorated by fine oil paintings. 



THE GREEK CHURCH. 159 

which good judges say must have been executed by a 
master hand. Above the chancel is a painting of the 
Last Supper, covered, like the Madonna, with silver, 
as are two others, one each side of the altar. Across 
the threshold of these doors no woman is allowed to 
step, and through the inner one none but the priest 
and his superiors are allowed to enter. The walls are 
hung with portraits in oil, and the general effect is 
rich in the extreme. The bishop's crown is covered 
with pearls and amethysts. The floors are strewn with 
rich oriental rugs, and around stand huge candelabra 
of solid silver, bearing colored waxen candles six inches 
in diameter and six feet high. The incongruity of 
such splendor in a remote wilderness is not the least 
considered among the curious things connected with 
this strange edifice. 

From the tower of the church the mountain scenery 
is extremely picturesque. A notable scene is Cross 
Mountain. Near its towering summit is a perpetual 
glacier, which in form is a perfect imitation of the 
Holy Cross, symmetrically real to the view. Probably 
no other body of ice is as reverentially considered as is 
the glacier on Cross Mountain. 

The adherents of the Greek Church at Sitka have 
a unique annual ceremony. Headed by their priest, 
who is flanked on either side by men bearing a large, 
open book, from which he reads in a loud voice, they 
march in procession about the town, to *' drive the 
dev il out " from all places in which he may have become 



160 SKETCHES OF ALASKA. 

installed during the year past. This ceremony has an 
air of solemnity about it that commands the respectful 
attention of spectators. To an American it presents a 
scene decidedly quaint and foreign. 

Governor A. P. Swineford was a citizen of Mar- 
quette, Mich., where, as legislator, mayor, and editor 
of the Mining Journal., he had developed sufficient 
gall to become a territorial governor. While en route 
to his dominion he conceived the audacity of intro- 
ducing a printer's outfit into the peaceful solitude of 
Alaska. At Portland, Oregon, the conspiracy was 
promoted by his purchase of a hand press and other 
material to print a newspaper, which was shipped to 
Sitka, where, for a time, the disturbing element was 
closely confined. 

The official labors of the Alaskan executive are not 
to a great degree exhaustive, consisting, chiefly, in 
conversing emotionally with the natives (making mo- 
tions to Indians), gathering curios and looking for 
his interpreter. Therefore Governor Swineford had 
abundant leisure to indulge his propensity to print and 
edit a newspaper without interfering with his official 
labors. 

At a meeting of citizens and officials, a publication 
company was formed with a paid-up capital of six 
hundred dollars — the cost of the printing outfit — and 
it was then resolved to publish a newspaper at Sitka. 
In the person of the Governor the association had 
available a practical publisher, printer and editor. 



THE ALASKAN. 161 

whose reputation justified the belief that their contem- 
plated newspaper would be published in form, and 
edited, if need be, with audacity. With the aid of a 
typo discovered among the marines, the Governor set 
up the press in a vacant Russian hut, and in due time 
appeared a full-fledged newspaper— TAe Alaskan. 

Most new enterprises boast of a specialty, and that 
of The Alaskan was of being the most westerly, most 
northerly and most remote publication on the Ameri- 
can continent. Three of its four pages were filled with 
solid matter, descriptive of Alaska, its climate, re- 
sources and needs in the way of congressional legisla- 
tion, written by the master hand of the Governor. 
The remaining columns were diversely illumined with 
local paragraphs contributed by a minor official, whose 
service in that direction was demanded by the manag- 
ing editor, notwithstanding his genius had never been 
thus directed—'' which will make the newspaper inter- 
esting," said the Governor. 

Following are samj^le locals in the initial number of 
The Alaskan : 

To a Sitkan the pleasures of life are blended with uncertainty 
as to the struggle between a monthly mail and the deep sea. All 
else is serene. 

A charital)le lady placed on our desk a dish filled with cookies. 
Early in our career we learned to admire the toothsome concrete, 
and the good lady has our thanks. Later— While momentarily 
absent, the managing editor clandestinely entered our sanctum 
and cooked thera all. 



162 SKETCHES OF ALASKA. 

The next mail will bring newspapers dated to November first, 
all antedating the elections now decided. A cold-potato diet is 
the reading of campaign literature after election is past. But we 
antipodes must endure the affliction as we do our old debts — with 
Christian resignation. 

A custom of Alaska Indians, incident to their superstition, is 
that of not removing their dead out the doorway of a house, but 
through the smokehole in the roof, in order, perhaps, to make a 
scoop on the evil spirit. Calls for the service of this tenderfoot 
as pall-bearer on such occasions are declined in advance. The 
spectacle of we, us, leading a funeral procession down the roof 
of a house must ever be lost to science. 

It is recorded that this is the season of the greatest rainfall at 
Sitka. But the present feature is alternate rain and sunshine, 
and unless one of the contestants weakens, there will be a dead 
heat for first money. Such is the force of habit, even on a strong 
mind. Though we sold our trotter before starting for Alaska, 
our pen, unless under a strong pull, will break and perpetrate a 
turf item. However, this being a weather item, the digression 
may escape the scrutiny of the managing editor, and as well as 
any answer his call for copy.- If not, why not ? 

Such commodity did the Governor of Alaska con- 
sider " made a newspaj^er interesting." 

A favorite prerogative of Alaska's executive is to 
coddle the Indians, to preside at their pow-wows and 
referee their domestic troubles, which duties Governor 
Swineford discharged with infinite zest. A native of 
Mormon proclivities, whose dual wives had prosecuted 
a scratch-fight, appeared with the combatants before 
the executive tribunal to have the matter adjudicated. 
Whereupon the Governor promulgated a code of di- 



THE GOVERNOR. 



163 



vorce — arbitrarily separated the untutored native from 
his best-looking wife. The decree was respected for a 
time, but finally the women became reconciled and 
again the trio appeared at court, praying that the 
divorced wife be restored to her former marital rela- 
tions. The court explained how this "couldn't be 
done," and lectured the applicants on the enormity of 
a good Indian having two wives. And then, with 
Solomonic wisdom, decided that the husband could 
choose between the two which he would take for his 
wife, and that must settle the matter for all time. That 
was a " decision as was a decision," one with decided 
effect, creating a lively conflict between the women, 
from which the court made good escape, taking refuge 
in a convenient billiard saloon. The case went over 
the term. 

On another occasion the Governor displayed wise 
judicial function. A vagabond Indian doctor had im- 
posed his legerdemain upon an invalid sexagenarian 
squaw, until his fees had exacted her last blanket. 
The patient, not convalescent, applied to the executive 
for redress. The complainant was attended by two 
stalwart natives, who were by the court invested with 
official authority — tying a ribbon, taken from a bunch 
of cigars, around the wrist of each — and ordering them 
to arrest and bring the offender into court forthwith. 
The royal insignia of an Indian doctor is a superfluity 
of hair, in the manner of a foot-ball lunatic, the mass- 



164 SKETCHES OF ALASKA. 

ive quantity of which supplies his healing power, and 
by which he set much store. With the offender, and 
about a dozen blankets in evidence, the court opened, 
and after a decree restoring the blankets to their 
proper owner, practical punishment was inflicted upon 
the culprit, the court barber shaving his head as hair- 
less as a billiard ball. After the shave a coat of red 
paint was applied to his scalp, after which the court 
kicked him out of his office, as fine a looking fellow 
as ever broke open a smoke-house. 

On the arrival of the civil officials in Alaska, the 
commander of the naval vessel stationed there denied 
social recognition to the plebian representatives of the 
Government, removing his vessel to Juneau in con- 
tempt of their presence at Sitka, a proceeding privately 
condemned by other officers of the ship. In his re- 
port to the department, the lieutenant-commander, as 
reported in the Army and Navy JotirnaJ, gave as the 
reason of such removal : " In order to secure a better 
harbor during an anticipated equinoctial storm," a 
reason absurd, owing to the fact that Sitka harbor is 
exceptionally secure, while that of Juneau is to a 
degree insecure. 

In recognition of the courteous treatment accorded 
them by the naval officer, writers on The Alaskan 
kept him stirred up with compliments in the way of 
pointed paragraphs pertinent to his quibbling. Speci- 
mens thereof are here appended : 



THE ALASKAN. 



165 



Fears are entertained for the safety of the equinoctial storm, 
now overdue. The arrival of the Army and Navy Journal is 
anxiously awaited. It may have tidings from it. 

Hoop-e-la ! The mail steamer is due I There's going to be a 
wedding, and the gunboat is safe at Juneau ! Arise and sing ! 
" An anchorage I've found, 
Where's good holding ground. 
To dwell I'm determined 
At this mining town." 

Such was The Alaskan in 1885-86. A copy of the 
initial number was sent to all prominent journals in 
the country, and the complimentary notices it received 
were greater in number and emphasis than ever before 
accorded to a country newspaper — the New York 
Herald devoting a column to quotations therefrom. 



166 SKETCHES OF ALASKA. 



CHAPTER III. 

GOVERNMENT BUILDINGS. 

The historic structures at Sitka, known as the Gov- 
ernment Buiklings, consisted of Baranoff Castle, 
recently destroyed by fire, the Barracks, so called by 
the Russians, and the Customs House. These build- 
ings are massive, and of much solidity in their con- 
struction. The outer walls and hall partitions are of 
timbers twenty-four inches square throughout, other 
timbers, joists and posts are twelve inches square. 
When laid, each wall timber had its top hollowed to 
receive the rounded bottom of its rider. Before re- 
ceiving its rider, each timber was secured in its place 
by copper bolts, one and one-half inches in diameter, 
driven through into the second lower one. These 
buildings were intended to be earthquake-proof, their 
predecessors having been tumbled down by such dis- 
turbances in 1827. 

The Barracks in size is eighty by ninety feet on the 
ground, and three stories high, each story divided by a 
hall ten feet in width. The outer walls are covered 
with siding painted a dingy yellow. This building was 
the military headquarters of the Russians, but Uncle 
Sam has accorded to it a more peaceable existence. 
The lower story is the territorial prison. In the sec- 
ond story are the offices of the civil officials and their 



GOVERNMENT BUILDINGS. 167 

sleeping apartments, rent free. The upper story is 
devoted to the court rooms of the United States 
District Court. 

The reason these buildings were bolted with copper, 
when iron would have answered as well, was explained 
by an old resident of Sitka. When the Russians were 
trading with the Sandwich Islands from Sitka, there 
was a ship-yard at the latter place where many vessels 
were built. When the buildings were commenced, 
the work was delayed by the non-arrival of the vessel 
from Russia having on board the iron for the new 
buildings. Baranoff, learning that the vessel had 
been wrecked, ordered work on the buildings to pro- 
ceed, using a quantity of copper bolts then on hand 
at the ship-yard. Some of the timbers next to the 
ground have decayed, where the copper bolts are 
plainly visible. 

Like the island on which it stood, the Castle took its 
name from the Russian Governor Baranoff, who was 
educated a tyrant in the Siberian school of horrors, 
and his reign at Sitka attested the high grade of that 
institution. There he ruled ''with a tyranny that 
beo-an with the knout, and ended with the axe." 

Prior to the advent of Baranoff, two attempts to 
found a settlement on the island were made by the 
Russians under protection of the Archangel Gabriel, 
but in both cases, the protection failed to protect the 
colony from massacre by the natives. 



168 SKETCHES OF ALASKA. 

In 1801 Baranoff came, bringing guns and gun- 
powder, to which the Indians paid more deference than 
to the Muscovite religion. Baranoff rebuilt and forti- 
fied the town. A line of stockade and two block- 
houses of his fortification are still in evidence at Sitka. 
The famous Baranoff Castle, recently burned, was con- 
structed similar to the Barracks, in size 75 by 125, 
with two stories and dome. It was situated on a rocky 
eminence, rising sixty feet perpendicular from the level, 
having a top surface of about one-fourth of an acre in 
extent. Baranoif fortified the elevation with batteries 
of cannon — the historic guns being still at Sitka — the 
property of Uncle Sam. 

An interesting sketch of history concerning the 
Castle, is given by Mrs. General Collis, of which the 
following is an extract : 

"It will be difficult to work the imagination up to the jjoint of 
believing that this now desolate old place was once the home of 
nobility — the scene of festivities, given with imperial sanction 
and ceremony, but such is the fact. Here princes and princesses 
of the blood royal have eaten their caviare, quaffed their vodhka, 
and measured a minuet, surrounded by a court, fresh from the 
palaces of Moscow and St. Petersburg It was in this very house 
that Lady Franklin spent several weeks of her aged life in the 
hope that she might find some trace — dead or alive — of her ad- 
venturous husband, Sir John. It was here that Secretary Seward 
resided for a time, when on his trip to see with his own eyes the 
vast territory peacefully acquired for his country, by the sagacity 
of himself and Senator Sumner, at a cost of two cents per acre." 

Until recently, the martial force of Alaska was 
wholly naval. One vessel is stationed at Sitka, where 



NATIVE INDIANS. 169 

she is idle nine months of the year. In summer a tour 
of the archipelago is usually made. A naval store- 
house is established at Sitka, and other naval vessels 
are frequent in the harbor. Some of the officers have 
their families at Sitka, housed on shore, their assign- 
ment to that station meaning three years absence from 
a distant home. They are pleasant and joyous people, 
who, toofether with the civil officials and their families, 
constitute a social community cemented with a sym- 
pathy born of mutual deprivation of the society of 
relatives and friends while resident on that distant 
evergreen shore. Life at Sitka is usually agreeable, 
the climate is genial, the surroundings novel and 
picturesque, living facilities are good, and with 
more frequent communication with the inside world, 
Sitka would be far from an undesirable place for 
residence. 

NATIVE INDIANS. 

Adjoining the town of Sitka on the north is the 
Indian Ranch, containing about seven or eight hun- 
dred swarthy natives. The Indians of Southeastern 
Alaska are a race distinct from those of the Western 
tribes in America. Their race name is Klingets. 
Their outward characteristic are coarse hair, black 
and straight, large black eyes, thick lips and flat 
faces; generally of medium stature, and well-devel- 
oped chests, arms and shoulders, while their lower 



170 SKETCHES OF ALASKA. 

limbs are shrunken and crooked. Much of their life 
is spent in their canoes, squatting on their feet and 
ankles for a seat, hence their deformity, while their 
constant paddling develops their breast, arms and 
shoulders. They have no tribal relations, but flock in 
families, so called, on separate islands, which they 
claim as their exclusive domain. The members of 
each family, the Sitkans for instance, assume blood 
relationship ; all are parents uncles, cousins and aunts, 
and they do not intermarry. When a man wants a 
wife he goes to another island and buys one, paying 
therefor an agreed number of blankets, which, with 
them, are a legal tender to the amount of two silver 
dollars. If the suitor is rejected, his lacerated affec- 
tions are soothed to a normal state by a payment of 
blankets to him. His enterprise fails not of reward — 
either a wife or a bundle of blankets. When com- 
pelled to take gold coin in trade, they go directly to a 
trader and get it changed to silver. They detect spuri- 
ous silver readily, but are suspicious of gold, nursing 
a legend that long ago a trading vessel visited the 
islands and imposed upon their ancestors a quantity of 
spurious gold coin. 

Unlike other Indians, the men perform the drudgery. 
The women are the bosses and untie the purse-strings. 
Nothing is bought or sold without their consent. With 
them this system has the best results, as it undoubt- 
edly would have in many civilized communities. They 



NATIVE INDIANS. 171 

are sharp traders, getting more for what they sell and 
paying less for what they buy, whisky excepted, than 
any other people I ever heard of. Put a score or more 
of them into Chatham street and within a few years 
they would own the street. 

The Klingets obtain their subsistence mostly from 
the sea. They eat the flesh of animals but sparingly. 
All kinds of fish and other sea life are their main food 
supplies. They have two annual festivals — the salmon 
and the berry festivals. These are celebrated by a 
procession of canoes decorated with green twigs and 
small flags daubed with images of the raven, fish, bear 
and other animals. The salmon festival is for the lib- 
eral run of salmon, and the berry festival for the 
abundant yield of wild berries the season brought 
forth. A long procession "of canoes filled with 
dusky natives, who paddle about the harbor singing 
a wild refrain the live-long day, with a feast and 
carousal at night, are the salmon and berry festivals 
at Sitka. 

Among the wild berries of Alaska, the salmon 
berry, so called from its vermilion color, like the meat 
of a salmon, is pre-eminent. Conical in shape, and, 
when ripe, the size of a large horse-chestnut, they 
are in appearance inviting and of delicious flavor. 
When leaving the country a keen regret was the 
parting with the salmon berry. 



172 SKETCHES OF ALASKA. 

NATIVE HANDIWORK. 

The canoes paddled over Alaskan waters are com- 
plete dug-outs, from what must have been, in some 
cases, monarchs of the forest. Their shells range from 
one to three inches in thickness, and in length they 
range from nine to seventy feet, and with proportionate 
width and depth. A war canoe at Sitka is sixty feet 
in length, six feet in width, and twenty-eight inches 
deep, with a projecting prow at either end, five feet 
long. Its bottom and sides, inboard and outboard, 
are as smooth as planed marble, and in its entire length 
does not present a flaw. The model of this mammoth 
canoe is as symmetrical as a pleasure yacht in waters 
of civilization. The natives navigate their canoes 
expertly, wielding paddles as dexterously as a cowboy 
manages a mustang. 

The Klingets are a festive race, paying much atten- 
tion to their amusements — potlaching, dancing, gam- 
bling and canoe-racing — and have a keen relish for the 
fantastic. The stock of masks of a family are num- 
bered by hundreds, presenting faces old, young, weird 
and horrid — mostly horrid — and all of home manufac- 
ture. Seemingly, by nature, they are endowed with a 
faculty for carving on wood, stone, slate, and on the 
softer metals. Their work in silver — rings, bracelets 
and like trinkets, which they sell to the whites — is of 
extraordinary merit. Their working tool for carving 



NATIVE HANDIWORK. 173 

is usually an old jack-knife, ground to a point. They 
carve images of animals and birds, from which is as- 
sumed their respective families sprung — the bear, the 
raven, and so on. Sculptured totem poles, some of 
which are thirty feet high, stand in their ranches, 
to which they pay homage. They daub images on 
their canoes, paddles and masks with a brush made of 
goat hair, and obtain colors from the juices of roots. 
The basket work of the women is superior to a great 
degree, some of which is so firmly constructed as to 
hold water. Their horn spoons are a superior article. 
They take the horn of the mountain goat, saw it 
lengthwise, and soak in hot water until pliable, then 
press on a wooden model into spoon shape, and 
then the handles are carved with surprising excellence. 
With the spoons they feast out of bowls made of horn 
or wood, elaborately carved. The Chilkat blankets, 
made by the family of that name in former times, but 
now a lost art, probably, are the most unique article 
of savage manufacture. They are woven from the long 
hair of the mountain sheep and goat, and are used for 
decoration when dancing and masquerading. They are 
in color a combination of black, white, blue and yellow, 
and figured emblematical of family genealogy and her- 
aldry. They are held as heirlooms by the more opu- 
lent families, and at times are sold to tourists for from 
one hundred to three hundred dollars each, according 
to their condition and quality of make. 



174 SKETCHES OF ALASKA. 



SUPERSTITIONS. 



When an Alaska Indian dies in a house, his body is 
not taken out through the doorway, but out the smoke- 
hole in the roof. This in order — to borrow a journal- 
istic phrase — to make a scoop on the evil spirit. When 
charged with witchcraft, they cremate the body of the 
dead. I witnessed the ceremonies on such an occasion 
at Sitka. First, I inspected the crematory. It was 
a crib structure of green balsam logs, in size about six 
feet long, two feet wide and five feet deep, half filled 
with dry kindlings, saturated with coal oil. When 
entering the house I saw the corpse sitting bolt 
upright in a corner, on the floor, and from feet to 
armpits sewed up in a dirty blanket, leaving head, 
shoulders and arms bare. It was a withered, dried-up 
old man, weighing about seventy pounds. He looked 
like a witch, and I half believe he had been one — at 
least I justified the supposition. A mourner raised 
the body and poked it through the smoke-hole, and 
another, on the roof, seized it and carried it down 
and dumped it into the crib. With the deceased 
was deposited his personal property, consisting of an 
ancient shot-gun, a butcher knife, a couple of blankets, 
and sundry trinkets. Then the crib was filled up and 
covered with dry wood, when more coal oil was poured 
on and the thing set on fire. Then a dozen of the 
mourners joined hands and circled around the burning- 
pile, howling doleful lamentations, joined by a chorus 



COMPENSATION. 175 

of wolf dogs in concert, until the fire burned out. 
Then they put the roasted carcass into a wooden box 
about three feet square, having a gable roof, placing it 
with a congregation of the like in their cemetery, above 
ground. They looked like a village of dog-houses. 

The original traders to the Pacific coast came in 
ships from Boston, hence all whites are called "Bos- 
ton men" by the natives. When a mining company 
imported Mexican burros for packing to the mine, in 
deference to their elongated ears the natives called 
them " Boston rabbits." 

COMPENSATION. 

When employed by or in company of whites, an 
Indian is killed or injured, his family demand compen- 
sation therefor, either in money or blankets. At Sitka 
an Indian in jail stabbed himself to death with a pair 
of pointed scissors, snatched from a fellow-prisoner, 
who was mending his clothing. A hundred or more 
Indians then proceeded to the Marshal's office and 
demanded three hundred blankets for the death of their 
brother. 

A miner employed a native to pack some drills to 
his claim, and before starting gave him a drink of 
whisky from a bottle taken from a cupboard. The 
Indian's squaw entered the door in time to see the 
bottle replaced, and she subsequently returned, broke 
into the cabin, and drank two bottles of the miner's 



SKETCHES OF ALASKA. 176 

whisky. The next day she was found dead on the 
floor of the cabin. Her family demanded one hundred 
blankets of the miner, which he paid, in order to 
exempt himself from a parlous state. The barbarous 
demand of an eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth is 
their creed, and, unless pacified, someone may be found 
dead — a life taken in compensation ; be he guilty or 
innocent, there is no distinction in that respect. 

No sense of gratitude abides with these natives, 
other than a seeming acknowledgment of the benefi- 
cence of the Great Spirit, evinced in their salmon and 
berry festivals. A fishing schooner was scudding 
before a furious gale of wind out at sea, when two 
Indians in a canoe were espied, who had been blown 
off the coast. The Indians were rescued, but owing 
to the severity of the tempest their canoe was lost. 
The master of the schooner landed the rescued men at 
their village, where a demand for pay for the lost 
canoe was made, joined by the men whose lives he had 
saved. Apparently a heart is not included in their 
anatomy, but in lieu thereof they have a gizzard. 

When aged sixteen the children in the Industrial 
School usually return to the ranches, but exist differ- 
ently. They eat off tables and crockery, use knives 
and forks, sit on chairs, wear store clothes, play poker, 
and whip their wives, like other half-civilized people. 



JUNEAU. 177 



CHAPTER IV. 



JUNEAU. 



The Amei'icaii-built town of Alaska is Juneau, 
named for Joseph Juneau, a descendant of the Mack- 
inaw, Green Bay and Milwaukee family of that name, 
who, in 1880, first discovered its adjacent gold deposits. 
The town is situated on Gasteneau Channel, a passage 
of deep salt water nearly a mile wide, dividing Douglas 
Island from the main shore. By the channels among 
and around islands Juneau is about one hundred and 
eighty miles northeast of Sitka. Together with Doug- 
las City and the extensive gold mine on the island 
opposite — virtually one community — there now is a 
population of about live thousand. The town is 
located at the mouth of Gold Creek, a small stream 
tumbling down a gorge between mountains 3,000 feet 
high, which wall the town on three sides, where it is 
picturesquely nestled. Following up a winding and 
ascending gulch for three miles, you come to Silver 
Bow Basin, a large area encircled by mountain-tops. 
Here are the famous placer diggings, where many thou- 
sands of dollars of gold-dust and nuggets have been 
gathered by the sturdy miners who founded and built 
up Juneau. 

The miners and traders of Juneau are of the better 
class of American pioneers, who in early manhood left 



178 SKETCHES OF ALASKA. 

their homes to march over the plains and mountains to 
the Pacific Slope, and there grew up with the sage- 
brush, and since have prospected the gravel beds of 
the mountain streams from Mexico to Alaska, men 
whose general characteristics are generosity, fidelity 
and honor, and who live in full confidence of the 
integrity of each other. Should one prove unfaithful, 
his case is duly considered, and, when adjudged guilty, 
he is warned to leave the country, and, for prudential 
reasons, such warnings are promptly obeyed. 

CLIMATE AND VEGETATION. 

The climate of Alaska is as varied as that of the 
country extending from Hudson Bay to the Gulf of 
Mexico. The Pacific Coast and the Aleutian Islands 
receive the warm breath of the Japan current, provi- 
ding those portions with a winter climate of the temper- 
ature of the States of Maryland and Tennessee. The 
island of Attou, an American, lying in the waters of 
the Eastern Hemisphere, has a climate as genial as 
that of Italy. The annual rain-fall on Southern Alaska 
is eighty inches, about double that of the Middle States. 
Usually it is a continuous drizzle for a week or more, 
facetiously called a dry rain, as clothes hung under a 
shed will dry during a down-pour. Shoes do not mould 
nor clothing become musty in the dampest weather. 
Up north, in the valley of the Yukon, where frost pen- 
etrates the earth twenty feet, the mercury often marks 
ninety degrees in July and August. About seventy- 



FISHES, FURS, FORESTS, ETC. 179 

two is as high as I experienced while four years in 
Alaska, and never at zero. 

Alaska is not a grain country. The cereals run to 
stalks, and do not head and ripen — too much rain and 
not sufficient sunshine. Garden truck grows luxuri- 
antly and yields abundantly. Many species of wild 
berries ripen in great abundance. 

FISHES, FURS, FORESTS AND ANIMALS. 

Practically, to an unlimited extent, food fishes 
abound in Alaskan waters. Cod, salmon, mackerel, 
halibut and herring, the chief fishes of commerce, are 
more abundant than in other waters of the globe. 
When aboard ship, and passing out of a narrow en- 
trance to a bay, where emptied a mountain stream, the 
;aptain told me to look over forward and see the fish. 
The ship was plowing through a run of salmon, cast- 
ing them out of the water from either side of the stem.* 
So eager were the salmon to reach fresh water, that 
the narrow entrance to the bay was massed with fish. 
In Alaska furs are a staple commodity. The value 
of the pelts annually secured is counted by millions. 
Sea and land otter, seal and sea-lion, sable-martin, 
beaver, and the several species of fox, are the most 
valuable. The most precious of furs is the sea-otter, 
and Alaskan waters supply the majority of pelts 
marketed. For a prime one its captor receives 1150, 
and Russian nobility are his best customers. Next in 
value are the black, blue, white and silver fox, the 



c 



180 SKETCHES OF ALASKA. i 

i 

most valuable bringing from thirty to one hundred 

dollars for green pelts. A group of islands, called ; 

Fox Islands, abound with foxes. An enterprising ■ 
hunter leased a smaller one from Uncle Sam, and has 

it stocked with these rare animals, which he feeds and j 

domesticates. Only the males are killed. A fortune i 

awaits the foxy genius who has established a fox-farm ! 

under the shadow of the Arctic Circle. Alaska is the ; 

sportsman's paradise. Myriads of wild fowl darken \ 

the waters of channels, inlets, bays and rivers. Moun- \ 

tain-sides are alive with grouse. The black and brown i 

bear are plentiful —the white species adheres to the ! 

frozen region. The brown and black bear are expert ' 
fishermen. When salmon invest the mountain streams 

bruin wades in, and with his paw deftly lands them, ! 

and then his bearship banquets on fresh salmon. ; 



MINES AND MINERALS. 181 



CHAPTER V. 



MINES AND MINERALS. 



Almost every known mineral is found in Alaska. 
Gold, silver, copper, mica, iron, coal, marble and slate 
are most connnon. Coal is abundant, cropping out in 
many sections. At Cook's Inlet the crew of the 
U. S. Cutter Corwin took from a bank facing the 
water seventy tons of cannel coal to the vessel in small 
boats within eighteen hours. Their mining tools were 
crowbars. The engineer of the cutter stated that the 
coal was high grade for steam purposes. 

On Douglas Island is the largest producing gold 
mine and plant in the world — an enlarged out-cropping, 
2,000 feet long, 600 feet wide and of unknown depth ; 
an elevated ridge of free milling decomposed quartz, 
with the largest stamp-mill in the world at its base. 
The mill has forty-eight batteries, with five head of 
stamps to each battery — in all 240 stamps — all under 
one roof, all pounding at once, and all operated by 
single power. The mineral is reduced to gold bullion 
at a cost of less than one dollar per ton of rock. The 
mill crushes 600 tons of rock each twenty-four hours. 
The rock averages four dollars per ton, gold. The 
mine and mill are situated within 200 yards of deep- 
water navigation to all seaports. In Alaska there are 



182 SKETCHES OF ALASKA. 

other producing- mines, but none, as yet, as extensive 
as the wonderful mine on Douglas Island 

Placer mining is extensively prosecuted on the Yu- 
kon and its branches and in the vicinity of Juneau. 
The annual increase of j^roduction is large. This 
often characterized barren and frozen region is the 
only unorganized territory Uncle Sam ever possessed 
that paid a net revenue. Its original cost has been 
returned to the treasury by the seal fisheries alone. 
The annual outj^ut of its mines and fisheries for the 
past three years has been -fG, 000, 000. So says the 
Interior Department. The greater development to 
come, probably, will not be over-estimated. 

YUKON RIVER. 

The majestic Yukon rises somewhere in the unex- 
plored region of British America, entering Alaska 
near the fifty-ninth parallel, thence it courses north- 
westerly to the Arctic Circle ; thence southwesterly to 
the Behring Sea. Steamboats drawing four feet of 
water ascend the river 2,000 miles from its mouth. 
Some of its numerous branches are alike navigable for 
300 miles. When flowing southwest in Alaska its 
usual width is about five miles, interspersed with 
numerous islands. It empties into the sea through 
four separate channels, having a distance of 100 miles 
across its mouths and deltas. In the interior at times 
it widens to twenty miles, forming a chain of lakes 



YUKON RIVER. 183 

navigable throughout their area. The mountain por- 
tions of the Yukon and its branches abound in pre- 
cious metals, and that remote region is at the present 
writing the objective point of many adventurous spirits 
seeking the yellow metal. 

The above account of the Yukon was written in 
1889, and now, that gold in abundant quantities has 
been found in the region, the world will soon know 
more of that distant and resourceful country. 

When at Juneau in October, 1886, a party of thirty 
miners arrived there fresh from the Yukon country, 
coming out over the Chilcoot trail, headed by the 
brothers Dinsmore, of California. They went in by 
the same route the previous month of March. At the 
time, a monthly steamer was the only conveyance out of 
Alaska to civilization, and which the miners missed by 
three days. Then they went to the supply store of W. 
F. Reed, a well-known old miner, to deposit their gold, 
which, in deer-skin bags, they unrolled from their packs 
of blankets. Reed removed from his safe books and 
shelves and then proceeded to stow therein the weighty 
little sacks, in the manner of placing brick in a cart. 
When all were stowed the door refused to close suffi- 
cient fco be locked, but Reed vigorously flung his num- 
ber eleven boot against the bags for a time, and finally 
succeeded in locking the safe door. The party had 
about '^^33,000, obtained from the gravel beds of Lewis 
River, a branch of the Yukon. 



184 SKETCHES OF ALASKA. 

VOLCANOES AND GLACIERS. 

In 1887 naval officers reported officially that there 
were then seven active volcanoes on the Aleutian 
Islands. Recent reports represent a more general 
awakening of these subterranean fires, there now being 
more than twenty of heretofore extinct craters, belch- 
ing out fire and cinders. The show of such force now 
in action in Alaska is the greatest known to the conti- 
nent. Bogaslow, and an adjacent island, recently 
separated by two miles of deep water, are now one 
island. The newly appearing terra firma is as smooth 
and black as if just from a molten state. Of the 
majestic scenery of Alaska, these burning mountains 
are an important portion. 

Our pen is unable to fully describe the grandeur of 
the huge glaciers that come down to the sea from the 
mountains of Alaska. Prof. John Muir, the explorer 
of the o'lacier named for him, oives its face dimensions 
thus : 

The front is about three miles wide. The height of the wall 
of ice is about three hundred feet, but soundings show that seven 
hundred feet of the glacier is under water, while still a third 
portion is buried in moraine material. Were the water and rocky 
detritus away, a wall of solid ice would be presented more than 
one thousand feet high. Five miles back of its face the ice is 
ten miles wide. This one glacier contains more ice than the 1,100 
glaciers of the Alps combined. 

When considered that this world of ice is crowded 
down to the sea between mountain walls forty feet per 



VOLCANOES AND GLACIERS. 185 

day, human imagination may estimate the vohime of 
rumble and roar attendant upon its tumble from a 
height into the sea. Imagine a huge iceberg of the 
bulk of the Ellicott Square building — many are larger 
— tumbling from a height into deep water. When on 
ship-board, anchored two miles away, on such an 
occasion, the first to come is a tremendous crash, fol- 
lowed, as Prof. Muir faithfully describes, by a deep, 
deliberate, long drawn out, thundering roar. Then 
rolling comes a monster wave, causing the ship to roll 
as if struggling with the like in an ocean tempest. 

The Muir glacier comes down to the sea from a 
range of lofty mountains, where stand in line the three 
majesties, Mt. Crillon, Mt. Fairweather and Mt. 
La Perouse, the lowest of which penetrates 15,000 feet 
skyward. 

Taku glacier, occasionally witnessed by tourists, is 
as high as the Muir, but not more than a mile wide. 
In the sunlight, when from its face is reflected the 
varied and radiant colors of the rainbow, it is mag- 
nificently beautiful to behold. 

The mammoth glacier that comes down to the sea 
from Mount St. Elias, presents on its front a wall of 
blue-tinged ice four hundred feet high and thirty miles 
wide. The ice falling from this monster into the sea 
would duplicate the glaciers of Switzerland each 
month in the year. The thundering sounds made by 
icebergs, falling daily from this huge glacier, would 
drown the roars of Niagara made in a thousand years. 



186 SKETCHES OF ALASKA. 

In ancient times the great wonders of the world were 
attributed to the work of human hands, among which 
were the Pyramids of Egypt and the Colossus of 
Rhodes. Could the sages who conferred such distinc- 
tion witness the movement of an Alaskan glacier, 
methinks a revision of judgment would transfer such 
honors to Nature's wonders in the New World. The 
Muir glacier alone has greater majesty than the mooted 
seven wonders of the world of ancient times — more 
than all the creation of human hands combined. 

Yet Americans flock to Europe and climb the rugged 
steeps of the Alps to look upon wonderfid glaciers. 
They gaze with amazement upon the majesty of Mt. 
Blanc, the only European peer of an Alaskan moun- 
tain. They traverse the Old World seeking natural 
scenery of a grandeur incomparable to that left behind 
at home, and by them unseen. The great European 
mountain is not of surpassing interest, and once a 
Yankee told him so : 

"How-de-do, Mt. Blanc V I vow I'm glad to meet ye ! 
A thundering grist of miles I've come to greet ye. 
I'm from America, wliere we've got a fountain — 
Niagara it is called — wliere you might lave 
Your mighty phiz ; then you could shirt and shave 
In old Kentuck — in our Mammoth Cave ; 
Or take a snooze, when in want of rest, 
On our big prairies — away out West ; 
Or when you're dry, might cool your heated liver, 
In sipping up our Mississippi River. 
Come over, Blanc — don't make the least ado. 
Bring Switzerland with you — and the Swiss girls, too ! " 



VOLCANOES AND GLACIERS. 187 

During the past decade Alaskan scenery has been 
witnessed by naturalists from many lands, all of whom 
proclaim wonder and astonishment at its magnificent 
grandeur. Through the summer months twilight re- 
mains to the exclusion of darkness, when the enchanted 
traveler, foregoing the pleasures of sleep, remains on 
the deck of the ship, there to inhale the blended fra- 
grance of air, land and water, to look upon the ever- 
green isles and islets as the passing ship glides o'er the 
surface of the placid waters, to gaze uj^on the recurring- 
wonders of Nature, to view the wild emotions and the 
flowing of the tide. Such is Alaska — our Land of 
the Midnight Sun ! 



188 THE FORESTER. 

THE FORESTER. 

LINES SUGGESTED BY A VISIT TO A LONELY DWELLER 
IN THE FOREST OF ALASKA. 

A sojourn in Alaska, without a compeer, 
Hunting and trapping and chasing the deer ; 
Sheltered with comfort and plenty in store. 
In a snug little cabin with ground for its floor. 

On a bed of dry leaves my limbs find repose, 
Proudly I wear my forest-made clothes ; 
A wealth of warm furs — pelts of my store — 
Abound in the cabin with ground for its floor. 

Smoke from my wigwam curls high in the air, 
A pot of rich venison is steaming in there ; 
The latch-string hangs outside on the door 
Of the neat little cabin with ground for its floor. 

Welcome, ye nimrods — when the river you ford 
Come to my shelter and feast at my board ; 
Three-legged stools stand "forninst" the door. 
In the snug little cabin with ground for its floor. 

Ye adorers of Nature, ye praising divines. 
Come to the forest where your goddess reclines ; 
Here gaze upon scenes of grandeur in store, 
Akin to that awaiting on the evergreen shore. 

Alaska ! imperial of mountain, glacier and braes. 
All peerless in grandeur creation displays ; 
A land rescued from imperious reign, 
A grand accession to Freedom's domain. 



REUNION. 189 



REUNION. 



Come, old friends, join in a social day, 

Father Time presses onward — we are old and gray ; 

In reunion we'll recall incidents of yore, 

Revive old tales and rhymes — have greetings galore. 

The recitations of youth — we'll repeat them anew, 
As " fond recollection presents them to view " ; 
We'll confirm early readings memory hath in store. 
From " quaint and curious volumes of forgotton lore." 

We'll open in meetly form with " Holy Willie's Prayer," 
Then Ichabod will Crane his neck to " Tam O'Shanter's mare " ; 
That "Caesar had his Brutus" — how "Wallace bled" we'll tell, 
And that "Freedom shrieked when Kosciusko fell." 

We will " swim the Hellespont " and cross the " Bridge of Sighs," 
And dive "in the bosom of the deep where Holland lies" ; 
We'll visit the cosy cottage whose smoke " so gracefully curls," 
And solve the knotty problem, "what to do with our girls." 

" Auld Lang Syne " we'll sing, on " Sweet Home " we'll dwell. 
And seize " the moss-covered bucket that hung in the well" ; 
For the woodman to " spare that tree " we will implore, 
And invoke that " hard times comes again no more." 

In common " we hold these truths to be self-evident," 
That it is better to "be right than President " ; 
That industrious habits should "in each bosom reign," 
And that "Truth crushed to earth shall rise again." 



190 REUNION. 

Bequeatlied by Washington to endless fame, 

Was the Starry Flag on land and ocean main ; 

A flag flaunting Liberty in repellent seas, 

Proudly unfurled, "braves the battle and the breeze." 

Bounteously are we allowed to " behold this joyous day," 
From " ignoble strife keep the noiseless tenor of your way" ; 
The " cannon's opening roar" is frightful to be borne, 
0, " Ye Ancient Mariners," " man was made to mourn," 

" As we go marching on," " hand in hand we'll go," 
" We hear their gentle yoices calling, our heads are bending low 
" Hold the fort I for we are coming," on the " Swiftsure Line,' 
To dAvell with him once liyiug at " Bingen on the Rhine." 



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FINIS, t 

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